LIBRARY OF CONGRFSS. 

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UNITED STATE* -ERICA. 

L 



THE NEW METHOD. 

AN INTERESTING THESIS ON 

GENERAL DEBILITY 

AND 

Nervous Exhaustion; 

WITH A FULL DESCRIPTION OF THE 

GENERATIVE ORGANS OF MAN, 

AND THEIR PECULIAR DISEASES. 

ALSO, 

THE NEW METHOD OP TEEATING NEEYOUS EXHAUSTION. 

/ 

By EDWIN D. SMITH, A.M., M.D., 

Professor of the Principles and Practice of Surgery, Diseases of the Geniio** 

Urinary System, and Clinical Surgery; Professor of Pathological Anatomy 

and Histology, Diseases of the Nervous System, and Clinical Medicine; 

Attending Physician at the Clinics for Venereal and Skin Diseases; 

Operating Surgeon for Diseases of Genito-Urinary System of 

Women; A uthor of Medical Works on Special Diseases of the 

J (y Genito-Urinary Organs of both Male and Female, etc. 

Office Hours— 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 5 to 8 p.m. 

yo.I± I 

OFFICE ; 

ioo East Twenty-ninth Street, cor. Fourth Avenue, 
New-York. 

) 



9- 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by 

EDWIN D. SMITH, A.M., M.D. 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Introduction, . . .5 

Anatomy and Physiology of the Generative Or- 
gans, 13 

General Debility, 31 

Spermatorrhoea, Impotence, Sterility, ... 58 

Treatment of Spermatorrhoea, etc., . .75 

Marriage, and Diseases of Women, . . . .82 

Gonorrhoea, or Local Diseases of Generative Or- 
gans, 97 

Syphilis, or Special Diseases of Generative Or- 
gans, in 

Surgical Diseases of the Generative Organs, . 128 

Self-Diagnosis, 140 

Notes of Cases, 145 

Special Notice to Patients, 167 



INTRODUCTION. 



Some years ago it occurred to me that it would 
be beneficial to mankind to issue a small and 
popular work, which would be acceptable to all 
without as much as possible using the many tech- 
nical terms so prolific with writers on medical sub- 
jects, that would be plain and intelligent to the 
many readers and to those suffering from the mal- 
treatment, neglect, and ignorance of self-styled phy- 
sicians ; but circumstances prevented the consum- 
mation of my desires until the present moment, 
when I determined to issue this work, that it may 
serve as a " beacon light " to warn off the many suf- 
ferers from the rocky coast that would lead them 
to destruction through the so-called doctors that 
attempt to foist their pretensions of skill on a too- 
willing and deluded public ; and should this little 
work, with its plain and unvarnished truths, lead and 
instruct any sufferers to a true and intelligent account 
of their ailments, I shall be well rewarded for my 
time and labor. It is with this object in view, and for 
the true benefit of mankind, that I shall endeavor to 



6 Introduction. 

demonstrate clearly, and succinctly, the damaging re- 
sults that may occur from neglect of those warning 
symptoms, that disease in its many forms shows itself 
to the practiced eye of a physician, and to point them 
out and impress them upon the mind of my readers, 
that they may be warned thereby and so seek proper 
and skillful medical aid. 

With the above object in view, and with a sincere 
desire to help and aid our fellow-man in his hour of 
distress and despondency — those hours when all the 
world seems dark and forlorn to his excited imagina- 
tion from the result of his over-indulgence by forcing 
nature on too early to do the work of adult life be- 
fore those organs God has endowed man with, that he 
may " increase and multiply after his kind," have at- 
tained their full development — and man rendered in- 
capable of procreation, and giving everlasting shame, 
misery, and unhappiness to the human race. 

Now, we have been endowed with certain procrea- 
tive organs so delicate and elaborate in their minute 
anatomy, that secrete an important fluid — the liquor 
seminalis, or seminal liquid — the richest and most 
elaborate and complex of all the secretions of the 
human body; truly the very essence and foundation 
of life that strengthens the body, invigorates the 
mind, renders the nervous system powerful, that we 
may exercise our memory and judgment for our fu- 
ture happiness, and those of others near and dear to 



Introduction. 7 

us. So, if we waste this precious fluid, so important 
in all its relations to our well-being, in a manner 
never intended or ordained by nature, but too com- 
mon among most young men of the present day, we 
sap the foundation of our being, overwhelm the nerv- 
ous system in its powerful functions, and then must 
suffer the many disorders always resulting from this 
over-indulgence, and causing the nervous system to 
deteriorate, the brain and all the important organs to 
become impaired, and giving us as an unwelcome leg- 
acy — melancholy, impotency, nervousness, and a gen- 
eral decay of all the faculties. And when the sufferer 
becomes in this condition, and realizes, perhaps too 
late, the wretchedness of his situation, and he is no 
longer able to enjoy the society he may be so well 
fitted to adorn ; that he is incapable of sexual inter- 
course ; by form a man, but not in truth ; without 
the healthy power of mind and body — and so becom- 
ing morbidly affected with distrust of his fellow-man, 
extremely sensitive, and perhaps leading on to acute 
mania or melancholia. 

The nervous system is very important in its power 
over life, and on all human happiness has a most 
direct bearing ; therefore its uses, and the danger of 
being overtaxed by any cause, should be fully appre- 
ciated by the public ; and if by constant mental work, 
or an over-indulgence in any of the passions, the 
nervous system becomes impaired, it should receive 



8 Introduction. 

prompt and immediate attention by seeking the ad- 
vice of one who has given these peculiar disorders 
his time and especial study for many years, and from 
whose experience and practice can discover the cause, 
and as promptly apply the proper means for a speedy 
and permanent cure ; so that the nervous power be- 
coming exhausted, the brain disordered, and the sys- 
tem at fault generally, they should be corrected, and 
a new impulse given to life by the application of 
those methods, new to the practice of medicine, that 
I have perfected and brought to the acme of science 
and skill ; and from my large experience, I am able 
to command success, and the heartfelt thanks of the 
many patients who have committed their cases to my 
care and judgment. 

There are many cases, also, in which the cause of 
many troubles are due to malformation, arrest of de- 
velopment, and of congenital origin ; and that can 
only be relieved by means of a surgeon's skill. To 
all such, we would advise a prompt consultation, in 
which they may be assured of the utmost considera- 
tion in the skillful treatment of their case. 

Many of these cases that require surgical interfer- 
ence have their direct influence on the happiness of 
married life ; and as the perfection of offspring and 
rightful succession of estates depends on the physical 
perfection of those about to enter the married state, 
it should not be consummated while there is any 



Introductic :. 9 

doubt that through weakness, malformation, or dis- 
ease its object would be useless, and the contracting 
parties rendered miserable for life, when, by a careful 
perusal of this instructive work, and a consultation with 
one who has made this department of medicine his 
special study, may afford the certain relief and cure. 

And to the many who, through the example of 
designing or indiscreet persons, have given the pas- 
sions free sway in many ways, and so have impaired 
their health, feel that they are in danger of premature 
decay ; let him, ere it is too late, look for those means 
that are now at his disposal, and so gain back his 
wasted strength and vigor, and feel that he is " once 
again a man ; " and that he may continue on to a 
ripe old age and happy end, surrounded by a bright 
and happy family. 

How many, without number, of both sexes, may 
be laboring under mental troubles and physical pecul- 
iarities connected with their generative systems, and 
which are the greatest importance of their lives ; and 
yet it is only their own secret, locked in their inner- 
most thought, and fearing to speak about it to their 
most intimate friends, because they will not be un- 
derstood or their motives appreciated ; and so they 
conceal their secret, and carry it on a heavy burden 
to the grave, a constant bane to their lives, and per- 
haps cause an early death, when by a little boldness, 
and a proper trust and confidence in their physician, 



10 Introduction. 

they might be relieved of so much worry and unhap- 
piness, and live to enjoy old age and honor. 

Therefore, in the following pages of this work, 
we will as briefly as possible give a description, 
first of the anatomy and physiology of the generative 
organs, that they may be readily understood, and 
their general importance in the human economy fully 
appreciated, and we will then endeavor to give to the 
intelligent reader the causes, variety, symptoms, etc., 
of the diseases and peculiarities that may affect the 
generative organs, that may cause them wholly or in 
part to fail in those important functions for which 
they were ordained ; and upon a proper discharge of 
which, depends and rests the entire happiness in the 
future of many individuals and families, as well as the 
prosperity of the country : for it is an unquestioned 
fact, that according to the perfection and vigor of 
these organs and their healthy action, depend, in a 
great measure, the health and perfection of the off- 
spring of man, as is taught to us in our daily expe- 
rience. 

In all respects we wish it distinctly understood 
that we stand second to none ; that we will always 
keep in the advance of practical medicine, that our 
patients may have the benefits of the progress of the 
times, and the advantages of all new remedies and 
new methods that may be advanced, and will be faith- 
fully tried and proved ; and I would call particular 



hitroduction. 1 1 

attention to my new method, approved by the faculty 
in the treatment of Spermatorrhoea, or seminal weak- 
ness, and which will be fully spoken of in our article 
on that pernicious bane, to most young men of the 
present day, and in all cases of any discovery, I do 
not adopt it or employ it in my practice, until fully 
tried, calmly and without prejudice, in its chemical 
and therapeutical effects, and then finally testing it 
by intelligent experiments on proper cases; by so 
doing, we keep step with the advance in physics, and 
have at our command all the best and most ap- 
proved remedies and instruments for the relief of 
many of those depressing " ills that flesh is heir to ; " 
nor shall I spare any expense, to obtain all those rem- 
edies and appliances that may be of benefit to my 
many patients. 

This is one of the many reasons that has induced 
me to issue this work at the present time, that I 
may bring before my readers a full and clear account 
of their troubles, at the same time offer them a means 
of speedy and complete cure, and so I have consid- 
ered it my duty, through this book, to bring the 
results of experience and practice before an intelli- 
gent public, both for them and our mutual advantage. 

As it would be interesting and instructive to our 
readers, I insert also some of the most peculiar and 
striking cases from my case-book, as they may be useful 
and give a correct notion to many in regard to their com- 



12 Introduction. 

plaints, and to show the treatment they have received 
that all future patients may see that their troubles are 
fully understood and appreciated ; that they, too, with 
many others, may look for speedy relief and sympathy. 
It will also be noticed that all these cases are so arranged 
that the author and patient may not be known to any 
one personally, though many of my patients, feeling 
truly grateful for the relief afforded at my office, have 
given me permission to refer all those who may apply 
personally to me. 

In conclusion I would say, after careful perusal 
of this work, that the human organs of genera- 
tion, in their deep and complex nature, require the 
most careful and cautious treatment, and as this has 
been my special study for the past years, and the 
treatment of all cases of nervous debility, venereal 
infection, loss of sexual power, malformations, and 
all complaints arising from a disorganization of the 
reproductive organs, whether constitutional or ac- 
quired, will be faithfully carried out in all its details, 
and that all those who may apply to me for advice 
or assistance may be assured of not only intelligent 
treatment, but the most inviolable secrecy, sympathy? 
and skillful attention. 

E. D. Smith, M.D., 

Physician and Surgeon, 
No. ioo East 29th st., cor. 4th ave., 

New York City. 



CHAPTER I. 

ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE GENERATIVE 

ORGANS. 

THESE organs, so very important in their relations 
to the happiness of mankind and for the proper pro- 
creation of his species, are so varied and complex in 
their nature and minute anatomy, that in a work of 
this kind we can not give a full account, but will 
give their anatomical and physiological relations in 
such a manner that the intelligent reader may fully 
understand them, and so be better able to judge of 
the nature and seriousness of his malady; that he 
may realize how important all these structures are in 
keeping the mind and body in a healthy condition, 
that it may perform the many functions and condi- 
tions it is so eminently fitted for. 

This work is only intended for the consideration 
of special maladies, with their causes, prevention, 
and treatment, and all those depending upon the 
organs of generation in the human species, in which 
a proper performance of their functions, with which 
they are endowed, has ever been considered so neces- 
sary and essential to our health and well-being, both 
mental and physical. They have always excited the 

(13) 



14 The Generative Organs. 

admiration of all anatomists, physiologists, and mi- 
croscopists in their beautiful arrangements and com- 
plex nature ; so perfect in all their many forms, and 
so well adapted by nature to perform that work she 
has set for them to do ; and, when we realize the 
delicate structure — so minute that it is not visible 
to the naked eye — and their peculiar fitness for the 
functions required of them, we understand how easily 
they may be impaired and their utility destroyed by 
any abuse or maltreatment that they may be sub- 
jected to through our passions and desires. 

In our classification of the organs of generation we 
w T ould divide them into — first, those lying within the 
abdominal cavity ; second, those lying within the pel- 
vis ; and third, those lying external to the body. Of 
the first w r e have the kidneys with a portion of the 
ureters, and the blood-vessels supplying them, and 
the nerves controlling their action ; and in the sec- 
ond, or those within the pelvis, we have the urinary 
portions of the urethra, the tubes coming from the 
testicles that convey the liquor seminalis, or seminal 
fluid containing the procreative seed, the seminal 
vesicles, the prostate gland, bladder, and the impor- 
tant portions of the urethra; and in the third, or those 
lying external to the body, the penis and urethra, 
with the scrotum, testicles, and appendages (Fig. i). 

The KIDNEYS are two true glandular organs, solely 
intended for the secretion of the urine, and are situ- 



The Generative Organs. 



15 




Fig. i. —Vertical Section of the Kidney.— Flint. 
*i *. '1 2, 3. 3, 3, 4, 4 , 4, 4 , pyramids of malpighi ; 5, 5, 5, 5, Sl 5 , apices of the 
pyramids surrounded by the calices ; 6, 6, columns of Bertin; 7 , pelvis of the 
kidney; 8, upper extremity of the ureter. 



1 6 The Generative Organs. 

ated in the back part of the abdominal cavity, behind 
the peritoneum ; one lying in each lumbar region, on 
each side of the spinal column, and extending down- 
ward from the eleventh rib to the crest of the ilium 
— the right being somewhat lower than the left on 
account of the liver being above it ; the left having 
the spleen above. The kidneys are capped by two 
small ductless glands — the suprarenal capsules — and 
are retained in their position by the vessels which en- 
ter them, and are surrounded by cellular tissue and 
fat. Each one is about four inches in length, and in 
shape resembles the kidney-bean. They are invested 
by a fibrous capsule, thin and smooth and easily 
removed from the surface. On section the kidneys 
present two portions to us — the cortical and the pyr- 
amids — both consisting of blood-vessels and the 
urinary tubes that lead down to the hilum, and 
carry the urine, after its abstraction from the blood, 
to the pelvis, and from that to the ureters. Now, as 
the kidneys secrete the urine from the rich supply of 
blood passing in by the renal artery, we can readily 
see how these important organs may be affected and 
influenced by the passions — as instance the effect of 
suddenly increasing the flow of urine, and a desire 
to void it from the effect of fear on infants and ani- 
mals, and also in those patients laboring under the 
effects of organic structure, with difficulty in passing 
the urine. The mind worried and harassed from th ; s 



The Generative Organs. 17 

complaint will cause great increase in the secretion 
of this fluid, and so greatly add to his already exist- 
ing irritation by the frequent calls to empty the blad- 
der, and might be very serious from retention of urine. 

The Ureters, these tubes lined by mucous membrane, 
commence at the pelvis of the kidney, and convey 
the urine to the bladder, and are called the " excre- 
tory duct of the kidney ;" they are about the size of 
a goose-quill, and from sixteen to eighteen inches 
long, and they pass down, one on each side of the 
body, to the back and lower'part of the bladder, and 
enter that organ by passing obliquely between its 
muscular and mucous coats, for about an inch, and 
terminate by a constricted orifice, thereby preventing 
regurgitation of urine. 

The Bladder (see Fig. 2) is a muscular mem- 
branous sac, situated in the pelvis at the lowest part 
of the body, behind the pubes and in front of the 
rectum in the male, and the uterus in the female ; 
this organ is the reservoir of the urine, and admits of 
great distension, so much so that when fully distended 
it rises out of the pelvis into the abdominal cavity ; 
it is oval in shape, and usually contains about a pint 
of urine, and has four coats, a serous, muscular, 
cellular, and mucous, named from without inwards ; the 
muscular coat acting by its contractions to expel the 
urine, and is held in its position by the various liga- 
ments that connect the bladder to the different por- 



18 



The Generative Organs. 




Fig. 2.— Vertical Section of Bladder, Penis, and Urethra. 



The Generative Organs. 19 

tions of the pelvis. Upon the inner surface of the 
base or fundus of the bladder, and behind the ori- 
fice of fhe urethra, is the trigone vesicate. 

The Urethra commences at the apex of the trigone 
at the neck of the bladder, and extends the entire 
length of the penis, to the meates urinarius, and 
presents a double curve in the flaccid state ; its. length 
is about eight to nine inches, and consists of three 
portions, the prostatic, membranous, and spongy por- 
tions ; the prostatic portions pass through the pros- 
tate gland, and upon its floor we have the verumon- 
tannm or caput gallinaginis, an elevation of the mucous 
membrane lining the canal, and serves to prevent the 
semen passing back to the bladder, on the floor of 
which on each side are the prostatic sinuses containing 
numerous openings, the orifices of the ducts of the 
prostate gland, and in front of which are the mouths 
of the ejaculatory ducts, and the seat of trouble in 
seminal emissions ; the urethra is very vascular, has 
some elasticity, and is lined by mucous membrane, 
very thin, and without any muscular fibers, and its 
lower part surrounded by muscles, the accelerator 
urince, and compresses urethra to assist in expelling 
the urine. 

We have two glands opening into the urethra : 
first, the prostate gland at the mouth of the bladder, 
and in shape and size somewhat like a horse-chestnut ; 
it is a pale, firm body surrounding the neck of the 



20 The Generative Organs. 

bladder, and consists of three lobes — two lateral, and 
a middle lobe — and secretes the prostatic fluid — a 
milky fluid of acid reaction, consisting of columnar 
epithelium and granular nuclei — and placed beneath 
and on each side of the membranous portion of the 
urethra, we have Compers glands about the size of 
peas, with their excretory ducts opening in the 
urethra. 

The Penis (see Fig. 2), " the organ of copula- 
tion/' consists of the cavernous portions or bodies 
(corpora cavernosa), and the spongy portion or body 
(corpus spongiosum), this latter extending the whole 
length of the penis, from its bulb to its termination in 
the glands which overlap the anterior portion or ends 
of the corpora cavernosa. These bodies are covered 
by integument or skin, very thin, and continuous with 
the mucous membrane, which covers the glands of the 
penis, and contains numerous small and highly-sensi- 
tive papillae, slightly raised, and supposed to be the 
seat of pleasure or of pain in the parts ; and upon the 
glands we have numerous small, lenticular, sebaceous 
glands, that secrete a matter of very peculiar odor, 
becoming easily decomposed. 

We will now turn our attention to the anatomy of 
those parts — the scrotum with its contents, the tes- 
ticles and appendages, as these are the most important 
organs concerned solely in the secretion of the most 
important fluid — the liquor seminalis. The scrotum 



The Generative Organs. 



21 



or purse is a loose bag of skin just below the root of 
the penis, and divided into two lateral halves by a me- 
dian line or raphe ; the left is somewhat longer than 
the right, due to greater length of the spermatic cord 
on that side, and consists of the integument and dar- 
tos ; the latter is a thin 
layer of connective tissue 
inclosing the testes, and 
divides the scrotum into 
two cavities, forming in tmmtMbf T''^ 
the center the septum m ^ 
scroti. 

The Testicles, those 
most important organs of 
the human economy, are 
two glands having an ex- 
cretory duct, and are sit- 
uated in the scrotum, one 
in each of its cavities, and 
their secretion consists of 
the true semen, the pro- 
creating fluid which en- 
dows the ovum or human 
egg with its vital power • 
they are suspended by 
the spermatic cord, which consists of the excretory 
duct or vas-deferens, vessels, and nerves. During 
early foetal life they lie in the abdominal cavity, be- 




Fig. 3. — Vertical Section of the Testicle, 
to show the arrangement of the Ducts. 



22 The Generative Organs. 

hind the peritoneum, and before birth they descend 
along the inguinal canal, and emerging at the external 
abdominal ring, pass down to the scrotum, carrying 
with it the spermatic cord and vessels, surrounded by 
a fold of peritoneum, which forms the serous covering 
of the testes, and its upper portion becoming obliter- 
ated, forms a distinct sac. They are supplied by the 
spermatic arteries which arise from the main arterial 
trunk, the aorta. Each testicle is of an oval form, 
flattened laterally, and on each outer edge lies the 
epididymis, consisting of a body (Fig. 3), head (glo- 
bus major), and tail (globus minor), and they are in- 
vested with the testicle with tunics or coats (the tuni- 
ca vaginalis, tunica albuginea, and tunica vasculosa), 
the first being most important ; we have spoken of it 
above. The minute anatomy of these important or- 
gans is too complex to give one a perfect idea how vast 
and wonderful they are, as when we consider that each 
testicle consists of three or four hundred lobules, each 
of which is a long, coiled tube, said to be several feet 
in length, and only visible under the microscope. It is 
in these minute tubes that the semen is secreted from 
the rich supply of blood passing over them ; and they 
therefore serve for the secretion and elimination of 
the seed, as it passes along these minute tubes to the 
head of the epididymis, and in the vas-deferens or 
seminal duct, and by that tube is conveyed to the 
vesicular seminalis or seminal vesicles (Fig. 4) situated 



The Generative Organs, 23 

at the base, and underneath the bladder, and serves 
as a storehouse for the semen until required for use, 
when it passes out through the ejaculatory duct to 
empty into the urethra. 

I have dealt thus far with the anatomy of these 




ducB 



Fig. 4. — Base of the Bladder, with the Vasa Deferentiaand Vesiculae Seminales. 

organs that my readers may fully appreciate their 
importance, and to show that being so minute in 
their structure, and elaborate in their formation, that 
they can not be forced on in their functions by self- 
abuse, without their most complete disorganization. 



24 The Generative Organs. 

This important fluid, the secretion from these glands, 
in its physiological structure, consists of the true 
semen, a thick, whitish fluid, having a peculiar odor, 
and the liquor seminalis, with solid particles, the 
seminal granules and spermatozoa ; this liquor sem- 
inalis being a transparent, colorless fluid, of an albu- 
minous composition, and the seminal granules round, 




Fig. 5. — Human Spermatozoids ; magnified 800 diameters. 

very fine granular corpuscles, only T oVo °f an i nc h * n 
diameter, and the spermatozoa, or spermatic fila- 
ments, the only and true essential element in pro- 
ducing fecundation. These are minute elongated 
particles, consisting of a flattened oval extremity or 
body, and a long slender caudal filament. A small 
circular spot is seen in the center of the body, and 



The Generative Organs. 25 

their movements, which are constant and remarkable, 
being a lashing or undulatory motion of the tail ; 
these animalcules are always present in healthy 
semen, and were discovered many years ago, but only 
lately have their true nature and object been 
fully studied ; but with the high power now obtained 
by the microscope, they have been fully and patiently 
studied, and all their movements tracked, and they 
are found to exist in all animals, but each has a pe- 
culiar form, and are supposed to be developed from 
the seminal granules, that finally open and allow the 
animacules to escape. The size of these minute 
beings is only -^Vo" P art °f an inch, and their num- 
bers are immense, while they are in constant mo- 
tion, except when in contact with acid or cold, but 
the movements will return on the application of al- 
kaline fluids or warmth, and while at the temperature 
of the body will continue for several days in motion, 
always going straight forward ; they do not exist in 
the seminal fluid until after puberty, and seldom in 
old age, though in some rare cases they have been 
found in the semen of very old men. And in all cases 
where they are absent, from whatever cause, the semen 
can not impregnate, though in every other respect it 
may be perfect, and the patient in his full health ; this 
has been many times proven, by separating them in 
animals. The great importance of these facts will be 
fully appreciated by our readers, when we treat of the 



26 



The Generative Organs. 



subject of impotence or seminal weakness, and that 
they give me a correct knowledge of their nature and 
the proper and scientific treatment of these organs 
when in a state of disease, or disorganization from 




Fig. 6. — Development of "£he Spermatozoids. — Flint. 
<z, *z, spermatozoids ; £, spermatic cell containing thirteen nuclei, two of which 
contain each a head of a spermatozoid developed ; c, spermatic cell containing two 
secondary cells, each one provided with a nucleus from which two spermatozoids 
are to be developed ; d,f, spermatic cells, each with one nucleus ; *?, spermatic cell 
containing a secondary cell with a nucleus ; h, bundle of spermatozoids. 

self-abuse. The semen thus developed and mixed 
with the various secretions before mentioned, is found 
during adult life, and even at an advanced age, and 
under proper physiological conditions always contains 



The Generative Organs. 27 

spermatozoids in active movement ; but if sexual in- 
tercourse be frequently repeated at short intervals, 
or the parties abuse these organs so necessary to life 
and health, the ejaculated fluid becomes more and 
more transparent, homogeneous and scanty, and it 
may consist of a small amount of secretion from the 
seminal vesicles, and the glands opening into the 
urethra, but without spermatozoids, and are conse- 
quently without any fecundatory power whatever, as 
is fully proved by microscopical examination. 

It is, in fact, extremely difficult to make a proper 
examination of them, owing to their being so trans- 
parent, and differing so little in density from the fluid 
in which they are contained, making it not only 
necessary to have a good and powerful microscope, 
but to be skillful in its use, when one can readily de- 
tect them, though there be very few and very minute ; 
and in the past years I have examined very many 
specimens brought to me by my patients, and under 
every variety of circumstances, and also from many dif- 
ferent animals. Nothing can well be more interesting 
or absorbing than these views of minute nature, to 
" view her stores unfold, " and are of intense interest 
to the physician. The value which is always placed 
upon this secretion, the work of those glandular or- 
gans, the testicles, is rendered very evident by the fact 
that it is not unfrequent for men to commit suicide 
from a supposed or real imperfection in those parts, and 



28 The Generative Organs. 

that men who have lost the penis, or who have been 
castrated from the effect of cancerous or other serious 
disease affecting the testicles, thereby rendering them 
forever unfit to enjoy their life from this privation alone, 
will generally become moping and melancholy, and 
generally perish by their own hand. How many times 
do we see the notice in the papers of suicide of young 
men, that could we trace the secret cause, it would be 
found in the testicles, or some malformation of the 
generative organs, either the result of disease, neglect, 
or self-abuse. Now, in the case of those who have 
been castrated before they have known or felt the 
passions that come to us after puberty, they are not 
subject to the same depression of spirit and wretched- 
ness of mind and body, nor that longing for the unat- 
tainable, as those who are rendered impotent after 
having shared in the happiness and delights of mar- 
ried intercourse. We have an excellent example of 
this in the eunuchs, though there is a marked differ- 
ence in their external characteristics, as by this de- 
grading operation, they are more effeminate in per- 
sonal appearance than those who are in full vigor and 
enjoyment of manhood. There are also many cases 
seeking my advice, in which the testicles do not at- 
tain their full size and development, and consequently 
can not secrete the semen perfectly. This is called an 
arrest of development, and intended to show that the 
organ had ceased to grow before attaining that perfec- 



The Generative Organs. 29 

tion that they should at the time of puberty. This 
effect is very frequently caused by an early indulgence 
in self-pollution. These cases are very frequently 
seen in a large practice, and there are many cases of 
grown men whose organs were no larger than those 
of a boy eight years old. But with proper attention 
and treatment, with time, I have no doubt such cases 
can be restored. 

Wasting or diminution in the power or size of 
these organs may occur at any age ; the testicle being 
generally of the proper shape, though diminished in 
size, and losing its elasticity and firmness, feels soft, 
and in texture becomes pale, and its blood-vessels ap- 
pear smaller than when in a natural state ; or the organ 
may undergo what is called fatty degeneration, in 
which the spermatic cord is affected by extension of 
the disease, and the nerves and blood-vessels, which 
are reduced in number. Disease will also affect these 
organs, sometimes from self-abuse, and then cause them 
to atrophy, in which it becomes altered in shape, un- 
even, irregular, elongated, and diminished in size and 
weight. In the proper glandular structure, the organ 
seems to be entirely deficient ; this is a very serious 
affection of the testicles, and may come from some ol 
the following causes: as impeded circulation, local 
inflammation, whether arising from a special cause or 
transfer of inflammation to the testicles, excess in 
sexual intercourse, and onanism, are also efficient 



30 The Generative Organs. 

causes for an atrophied condition of these organs. 
Also, injuries of the back part of the head have been 
the cause of atrophy of those organs, and this would 
tend to support the views of the phrenologists, who 
contend that the seat of sexual desire is in the cere- 
bellum, which is located at the back part of the head, 
and between which and the organs of generation there 
is great sympathy ; and it is an unquestioned fact, 
that the brain, either in its entire, or in a particular 
part, does undoubtedly exercise a great influence upon 
the generative organs, and the desire for sexual 
intercourse. 



CHAPTER II. 

ON SEXUAL AND GENERAL DEBILITY — THE EF- 
FECTS OF SELF-ABUSE OR MASTURBATION. 

We open this chapter with true feelings of sympa- 
thy for our fellow-beings, and there is no branch of 
our professional duties to which I have devoted the 
study of many years and witnessed the heart-rending 
effects as those resulting from self-pollution. When 
we know and feel that this pernicious practice was 
commenced and entered upon at a time of life when 
one was wholly unaware of the great danger he was 
subjecting himself to until he had crossed the " Ru- 
bicon " and it seemed impossible for him to turn 
back to the paths of manly vigor. I shall, therefore, 
feel it my solemn duty to point out these facts in as 
plain a manner as possible, that all may realize the 
great and lasting danger and sin they may subject 
themselves to ; to warn them off the rocky coast of 
Scylla, and at the same time having a care that they 
are not dashed to pieces and destroyed in the whirl- 
pool of Charybdis — or, in other words, I would show 
them the sin in glaring colors and the deteriorating 
effects of that unnatural practice called onanism or 

(3i) 



32 General Debility, and Nervous Exhaustion. 

masturbation, by which persons of either sex, when 
alone and in secret, defile their bodies whilst, yielding 
to the unnatural and filthy imaginations, they en- 
deavor to imitate and procure those sensations which 
can only attend the sexual act. It is such causes as 
these which combine to destroy, to blight, and to un- 
dermine the vigor and manhood of the youth of this 
great nation, and to whom we may trace with pro- 
phetic vision the wide-spread, far-reaching, and deso- 
lating plague, which, more than all other causes com- 
bined, has peopled the suicide's grave — the asylum 
for the wrecked and ruined in manhood's dawn. 

Any man — be he young or in the zenith of his de- 
velopment and full growth — whose fancy and heated 
imagination will picture to him in sweet and seduc- 
tive visions those ideas and desires which delight the 
excited mind and allures him on to fresher fields of 
thought and excitement in the unbroken solitude and 
quiet of his own chamber, and who, in a moment of 
forgetfulness, yields to the prompting of his passions, 
has opened the way for many thousands of woes to 
him in his future years, and will poison his future life 
and render unhappy and a place of dread, what 
should be to him and all a place of unalloyed happi- 
ness — the bridal bed. 

As the mind becoming inflamed with these many 
thoughts of a lascivious nature, and the excited fancy 
paints with all the arts and graces of an angel the 



On Sexual and General Debility. 33 

form and figure of the one adored, and the imagina- 
tion feeds the flame until every feature, nerve, and 
ligament is strung to the utmost, and the blood 
courses through the arteries and veins with redoubled 
force ; the whole frame is aglow with the excitement 
of the present moment, when the spell is broken, the 
dream is passed, and all seems dark, only for the wak- 
ing victim to realize how fearfully he has lowered 
himself, even in his own esteem and respect, and feels 
the intense disgust with himself and all around him. 
Thus it is that the unfortunate victim of this perni- 
cious habit seeks relief or pleasure or perhaps re- 
venge in the solitary haunts, and from which he 
comes with the determination never to yield again, 
but only to find all his good resolutions broken and 
shattered to the ground, and he sinks deeper and 
deeper in the hands of vice and self-abuse. Nor is 
there any single vice, disease, or irregularity that in 
the course of human life ever causes so much sorrow, 
worry, and anxiety as this. How often do we find it 
in the experience of practicing physicians that young 
men have gone on in these practices, little realizing 
or knowing their great danger, until — united to 
one adored for a long time and to eternity — they 
find themselves unable to enjoy the delights of the 
marriage-bed, as I have seen many such cases, now 
entered in my books, and they will be noticed in the 
latter part of this work. 
3 



34 General Debility and Nervous Exhaustion. 

And from these facts you may see how so many 
of our young men of the present day suffer so much 
from many causes that seem hard to explain, such 
as pains in the head and back, giddiness, noises and 
ringing in the ears, loss of flesh, wakeful nights, re- 
morseness and tired feeling on rising, and in the 
limbs ; palpitation of the heart, bashfulness, avoiding 
company, nervous and apprehensive of some trouble, 
with loss of energy and will power, a bad memory, 
and a loss of generative force and power. These are 
a few of the many symptoms that will come to all 
sooner or later that will indulge in this pernicious 
habit ; that he has gone so far that he can not pro- 
duce with these overtaxed organs that healthy cell 
so necessary for the reproduction of a normal and 
well-developed being ; as he must know how weak 
and ineffective he must have rendered his generative 
organs, and then should realize, and may truly ask, 
" What can I do to be saved ? " 

This delusive and pernicious habit is first commu- 
nicated at the many public and private schools, and 
seminaries, where our youths are sent, and even in 
many cases at the early age of nine or ten years, 
from companions or nurses, and before they are at 
all aware of its dreadful consequences. The absolute 
importance can not be overlooked that they should have 
a virtuous education, that they may restrain their un- 
ruly passions when they become of that age when 



On Sexual and General Debility. 35 

they may throw off all parental restraint — as surely it 
will be, " As the twig is bent, so will the tree incline." 
So in the period of youth, with the conscience tender, 
the heart susceptible, the imagination vivid, and the 
cares of this world, in the far future ; does he receive 
those impressions, that may lead him on to so much 
worry and unhappiness, when the mind should be re- 
ceiving the seeds of useful knowledge, and correct 
impressions, out of which he will come forth a man 
with a bright and happy future before him. 

Nothing, perhaps, so weakens the intellect as these 
pernicious habits, which possess the whole mind and 
body, and prevent their victims from following their 
daily vocations, rendering them stupid, thoughtful, 
and dull, and destroying their vivacity, cheerfulness, 
and health ; bringing on consumption, weakness, and 
all that horrid train of complaints which make them 
timid, uncertain, full of whims and ridiculous, and so 
making it his imperative duty, no matter how seldom 
the unnatural losses may occur, that he should seek 
the advice of a competent and skillful physician, 
that the integrity of 'his general health, and the power 
of his masculine capacities, will be both saved from 
further abuse, and not deteriorated, but restored to 
their own normal standard ; and unless they are, will 
explain the reasons why we have so many thousand 
cases of scrofula, because the male spermatozoids 
are weak, feebly and imperfectly developed, and un- 



36 General Debility and Nervous Exhaustion. 

healthy ; the result being, that the offspring is born 
to a fearful legacy, inherited from his parent, 
who in an evil hour has violated his manhood, and 
debased his noblest faculties and organs to the en- 
joyment of a short pleasure of a secret vice, and we 
also see many, many cases of pulmonary consump- 
tion that are due to this pernicious habit, and to this 
also w r e may trace the cause and origin of why we 
should see so many weak, feeble, and rickety children ; 
all due to the uncurbed passions of their ancestors. 

And it should be the most solemn duty of all parents, 
that they should shield their offspring from all dis- 
solute companions, too much freedom of the sexes, 
and the reading of that highly-colored fiction that 
forms so much of the literature of our youths of the 
present day, and the principle of shame and habit of 
self-denial, fully impressed upon them. 

This fearful habit may commit the w T orst ravages 
upon youth and manhood, as it strikes at the very 
root of the propagation and increase of the human race, 
by debilitating and sapping the springs of life, and 
that we can help and feel it our duty to warn the 
youths of the present day from this pernicious habit ; 
and to only seek the paths of rectitude and virtue ; 
though we well know that the temptation and allure- 
ment of this mischievous vice, onanism, as it offers 
such strong inducements for youth, and even man- 
hood to indulge in it, to his future misery and dis- 



On Sexual a?id Ge?icral Debility. 37 

tress, as it can be practiced in the solitude of the 
bedroom, and its effects are so slow and insidious that 
we are not aw r are of our danger until too late; so dif- 
ferent for the immediate effects of a night of revelry 
and debauch ; so for a time this habit is concealed from 
all, and this solitary and vicious gratification indulged 
in, the evil consequences not known, and so not an- 
ticipated, but the undermining process still going on, 
until the truth will some day surely assert itself, and 
perhaps to the sufferer's everlasting disgrace, and it 
does not show itself, in any particular part, more weak- 
ened than another, and a failure of memory being 
sometimes the first indication of the mischief going 
on, and the brain and nervous system becomes weak- 
ened and diseased. 

The loss of blood, though trivial in quantity, if con- 
stantly repeated, is a sure index of a failure of the 
vital powers, but the constant and daily loss of this 
most elaborate fluid is still more rapidly destructive, 
and the general debility produced thereby is very 
great ; so much so as to affect the brain in its most 
important functions. We are taught by physiol- 
ogy, that phosphorus, the chemical element that 
enters so largely into the composition of the brain 
and nervous system, also forms the essential element 
of this vital fluid, and so we can realize the immense 
injury that is daily consummated from this repeated 
unnatural loss of semen, and shows us the most posi- 



38 General Debility and Nervous Exhaustion 

tive indications for treatment ; and during a practice 
of many years, and in which period I have met every 
form and phase of disease, yet I feel bound to say 
that in none of the multiform types of professional 
derangement, have I witnessed so much of human 
agony as in the young man who feels and knows 
his unfitness for marriage, when the bride awaits his 
coming. 

If you have been led astray, do not hesitate to seek 
relief and advice without a blush ; do not fear to tell 
all to your physician ; it was not your fault, but your 
misfortune that you were led onward and onward, 
with, at the time, not one thought of wrong that 
must lay in your future path; but if you persist in 
driving on to destruction, you must take and assume 
the responsibility, so that I can advise to all to be 
cheerful and full of hope and courage, and strong res- 
olution, to keep from despondency and that terrible 
melancholy that breaks the heart and saps the foun- 
dation of one's very existence. Seek the true and 
proper relief. Let your physician know all your fear 
and failing, and in the heart of an honest man 
you may be sure of finding relief and comfort, that 
in the end, when one's allotted time draws near 
to its end, and man's threescore years and ten 
have passed away, he may look on the past with 
pleasure, and with thankfulness, think of the time 
when his feet were led away from- the avenues of de- 



On Sexual and General Debility. 39 

struction, and are planted on the firm rock of virtue 
and honesty, that he may look his companions in the 
face, and say, " I am a man again, " and his children 
shield and guard and protect him, and himself an 
honor to society and his race. 

In pursuing my own investigations into these im- 
portant and interesting subjects, I have left no means 
of acquiring information untouched. Besides study- 
ing and experimenting as far as was proper in thou- 
sands of cases that came under my notice profession- 
ally, I have fully experimented on hundreds of ani- 
mals to the utmost extent humanity would allow. 
By these means I have ascertained many important 
facts, and studied the action of many powerful medi- 
cal agents which could not with propriety and safety 
have been tried on human beings first. 

Functional or sympathetic disability of the reproduc- 
tive organs generally appears in two forms, Impotence 
and Sterility, which are frequently, but erroneously 
confounded together. Sterility means a total absence 
of the reproductive principle, and must always be ac- 
companied by impotence or inability to associate with 
the other sex, except temporarily, in certain peculiar 
cases ; but a man may be impotent without being ster- 
ile. Absolute sterility is generally incurable, because it 
arises from destruction or disorganization of the tes- 
ticles, and it is, therefore, only in the way of prevent- 
ing the evil, by removing its causes, that we can 



40 General Debility and Nervous Exhaustion. 

do good; but impotence can be cured as well as 
prevented. 

Besides, impotency is the more frequent affection, 
and is often merely the forerunner or first stage of 
sterility, and it becomes therefore the most important 
subject to consider. It is along this path that the 
youth travels who would yield himself up to this de- 
basing habit, and so subdued by this wretched infatu- 
ation, that while conscious of the change that is tak- 
ing place, he appears to have lost all power of self- 
control, or to make a proper effort to recover his 
position among his fellow-men. Torn by the con- 
tending passions of remorse and sensuality, his mind 
becomes disordered, and himself moody, unhappy, 
and miserable, and sensibly alive to the impossibility 
of mixing in the ordinary enjoyments of life, and of 
deriving from sexual intercourse any of those thrilling 
delights which are inseparably appended to that act ; 
and he avoids all intercourse with his friends and 
species, bidding a gloomy farewell to all cheerful 
society, and the haunts of men, and all the anxieties 
and hopes of men. The pursuits of business, be it 
trade, politics, or commerce, are too great for him in 
his indolent imagination, or too great for his desires. 

Imbued with this idea, he will vent his tirade against 
the world at large and his own feelings, which are 
only the results of his vices. Thus he becomes iso- 
lated and so fearfully changed, the dupe of a lust 



On Sexual and Ge?ieral Debility. 41 

alike horrible in imagination as well as act, and all 
his youth and health and the supremacy of his mind, 
degraded and gone. 

Some will continue this habit from a feeling of 
revenge or despair, as though conscious of its 
ruinous tendencies; they have endeavored to break 
the bonds that held them in an iron grip, and to for- 
get this unmanly habit ; they have sought the inter- 
course of women : but unprepared, and their mind in a 
disordered state, they have found themselves power- 
less to enjoy the act, and vexed, ashamed, and di- 
spirited, they forego any further attempts, lest they 
should fail again ; and so, abashed, shrink from the 
gaze of friends, thinking every eye is upon him and 
reads his innermost thought, when it may be only in 
his excited and heated imagination ; and so con- 
tinues on in the downward path, until his haggard, 
pale, and inexpressive face, his dull eyes, and thin, 
tremulous form, all betray him to the eye of a prac- 
ticed observer. Too miserable to seek that advice 
that could restore him to his manhood again, his 
imagination burns with an unnatural glow ; his bodily 
organs, taxed and weary, refuse to obey the stimulus 
of that depravity which goads his fancy at night, and 
in dreams ; his broken rest drives him on to another 
cheerless day. I can not help just here quoting the 
burning words of Sir Astley Cooper, who, in one of 
his lectures, said : " If one of these miserable cases 



42 General Dibility and Nervous Exhaustion. 

could be depicted from the pulpit, as an illustration 
of the evil effects of a vicious and intemperate course 
of life, it would, I think, strike the mind with more 
terror than all the preaching in the world. The irrita- 
ble state of the patient leads to the destruction of 
life, and in this way, annually, great numbers perish. 
Undoubtedly the list is considerably augmented from 
maltreatment, and the employment of injudicious 
remedies. ,, 

The trouble is curable in all cases, but to effect 
such a result, requires a thorough knowledge of the 
pathology of each individual case, and through adapta- 
tion of treatment to meet all the requirements of its 
unnatural condition, and it is only the physician who 
has made this and kindred affections a life-long study, 
whose skill is acquired by treatment of many thou- 
sands of cases, that can successfully treat this disease. 

It may be as well just here to give the reader some 
idea of the letters I am constantly receiving in my 
practice, that they may know how their various symp- 
toms may be expressed, so that they will be intelli- 
gent to the physician, and also to show some of the 
actual symptoms that my patients feel as it seems to 
them, and also the primary cause of all their trouble. 
I will not number these cases, but they can all be 
seen, and many more similar ones in my notes of 
cases, and on my letter files. 



On Sexual and General Debility, 43 

Case No. — . E. G. D. writes : 

" My Dear Doctor : — For the past three years I 
have been suffering from what has been called, by the 
most prominent man in the medical profession at this 
place, dyspepsia, with congestion of the liver and 
other complications, and I have followed his advice, 
as well as that of some eminent New York physicians, 
but with no permanent relief, as it has only been to 
find a relapse in a short time, and yet I have en- 
deavored to carry out all their instructions faithfully, 
that I might regain my lost health. At that time I 
had no suspicion of the real cause of all my troubles, 
until fortune favored me by meeting a confidential 
friend, who had suffered the same as I, and who had 
received the benefit of your advice and treatment. 
It then occurred to me the true nature of my malady, 
and again I returned to my former advisers, telling 
them all my suspicions, but only to have my fears 
laughed at ; and though my urine was examined — 
though how skillfully I can not tell — still I found my- 
self steadily getting worse. Now I acknowledge to 
you, and to them, that I have steadily masturbated 
until four years ago, being at present thirty years old, 
and though I am told that I look healthy, I have 
constant pimples on my face, and an emptiness in my 
head, and am troubled with reeling and palpitation 
if I attempt a round dance, with a constant fear of 



44 General Debility and Nervous Exhaustion. 

sudden death, and sudden flashes of heat all over the 
body. My memory is very defective, though at one 
time, when at school, very good, and it is very tire- 
some to me to make any steady application of the 
mind to reading or writing. Although I sleep well 
and soundly, when I awake in the morning I do not 
feel refreshed, but languid and heavy, and would lie 
in bed all day. I sometimes have emissions in my 
sleep, and fear that it passes in my urine when at 
stool. Hoping that, with these symptoms before 
you, I put my case in your hands, and shall abide by 
your advice. 

" Very truly, etc., ." 

On receipt of the above, I at once advised him that 
an interview was necessary; he called at my office, 
and when he came, I gave him a most careful exami- 
nation bodily, and found he was suffering most from 
nervous prostration, that had deranged all his normal 
functions ; hence, his dyspeptic symptoms, etc. Sat- 
isfied that we must look deeper for the primary cause, 
I examined his urine, and easily discovered with the 
microscope that he was daily voiding large quantities 
of semen in the urine ; I did not hesitate to tell him 
the true cause of his disorders, and with confidence 
promise him a speedy cure, with immediate relief 
from his most distressing symptoms. 

I explained to him the true cause, and he was willing 



On Sexual and General Debility. 45 

to abide by my treatment ; and I at once put him on 
a reliable course of medicine, combined with personal 
treatment that has never failed in these cases. In 
this case I had good ground to work on, as his body 
was well nourished and his physical condition good, 
though who can tell what might have been the fearful 
results in this case had all his symptoms been allowed 
to go on, perhaps to mental imbecility ; particularly 
had his circumstances been such as would have com- 
pelled him to a life of constant employment for sup- 
port, as the sedentary habits of a book-keeper or 
others at like work. The last time I heard from him 
he was sound and well. 

Case No. — . D. O. B. 

" Dear Sir : — It is with feelings of great regret 
and hesitancy that I am compelled to write to you, 
that you may give me your kind advice and assist- 
ance, that I may regain my former health, and hope 
you will advise such a course which I can adopt with- 
out too great a restraint, and that will not interfere 
with my public duties. While at school some ten years 
ago, I first learnt the habit of self-abuse. At that 
time I thought only of the pleasure it gave me, never 
dreaming that in after-years I must suffer for it. Aft- 
er leaving school I kept up this habit, perhaps only 
moderately, but at nineteen years of age I found my 
health very much impaired, and a sufferer from general 



46 General Debility and Nervous Exhaustion. 

debility, for which our family physician ordered cod- 
liver oil and iron ; but I did not tell him at that time 
what I suspected was the true cause of my trouble. 
He also advised change of climate ; so I went down 
to North Carolina, back in the pine-woods of that 
State, and there I met a very handsome octoroon, but 
was unable to obtain my desires, and so what I could 
not have in reality, I sought for in imagination and 
self-abuse. I have continued this vile habit up to the 
present time, and though I have tried to break my- 
self of this habit, it is so strong, that even my relig- 
ious convictions can not overcome my desires. 

" I will now try and give you some particulars of 
myself, and leave the rest for you to judge. I am 
twenty-six years old, not married, six feet high and 
very thin, gait stiff, and wants elasticity and firmness, 
eyes weak and sometimes dark rings below them, and 
sometimes hot and uncomfortable ; hair dry and thin, 
and frequently blotches on my face, especially at 
spring and autumn. I have a good appetite, but suffer 
from cold feet and limbs, and sometimes sleepless 
nights ; in fact, all the symptoms of general debility. 
My memory sometimes fails me, and I am also troub- 
led with blushing; frequently from no cause. Rather 
a good liver, but irregular. Like all good things in 
moderation, and smoke also, and don't believe in 
sedentary habits if I can help it, so take plenty of 
outdoor exercise. Now, my penis when flaccid is 



On Sexual and General Debility. 47 

very small indeed — the end much smaller ; and, when 
an erection takes place, seems inflamed. I occasion- 
ally am troubled with involuntary emissions in my 
dreams, but not very often, but always have fearful 
erection in the mornings when I awake. My urine is 
somewhat affected, as it has a strong smell and seems 
to deposit when standing. I inclose you your con- 
sultation fee (five dollars), and hope that you can 
guarantee me a speedy recovery and restoration to 
health, that I may rely upon you and will ever be, 
" Faithfully yours, D. O. B." 

Case No. — . C. P. V. writes to us : 

" DOCTOR : — I should have availed myself of your 
advice before now ; but, like many others, I am suf- 
fering for a supply of the needful, but inclose the 
amount of your fee (five dollars), and should there be 
any more to pay, I hope you will kindly give me time, 
as you may be assured I will meet it like a man. My 
only regret is that I did not know of yourself sooner, 
that I might have had the benefit of your counsel 
and advice. 

" Now, what shall I tell you my troubles are ? 
Well, I am of medium height, age twenty-nine, pale ; 
occupation, druggist ; habits regular ; had some nerv- 
ous debility when in company or if called to mental 
xercise. I have intense twitching, and my lungs and 
tomach feel so racked I don't know what to do, un- 



48 General Debility aud Nervous Exhaustion. 

til after awhile these symptoms pass off, and I feel 
easy again, and sometimes drowsy, heavy sensations, 
which cause my eyes to be dull ; cough sometimes, 
but seldom ; and my tongue coated sometimes yel- 
low, but do not think my lungs are affected ; but 
would like to have your opinion. My parents are 
healthy. Now, when I was quite a boy (only thir- 
teen), I learnt the habit of self-abuse from a school- 
fellow, and continued it for three or four years, but 
I became disgusted with it and gave it up, but find 
that I am now feeling the consequences of my indis- 
cretion, as I suffer with want of manliness, fretting 
and foreboding, etc. Am troubled with nocturnal 
emissions (though irregular), and sometimes a little 
pain in the right testicle. Void my urine well, and 
can walk well, and do not mind fatigue ; sleep well 
and eat well, but am troubled with internal morbid 
sensations. I would like to feel like I felt a year ago. 
Hoping that I am not imposing upon your time, and 
that you will relieve me, I shall ever be, 

" Yours most truly, ." 

Case No. — . 

" My Dear Doctor :— It was a hard struggle to 
decide to write this letter to you, but having full con- 
fidence in your discretion and well-known science, I 
have determined to put my case in your hands, and 
abide by the results, as I can not longer stand the 



On Sexual and General Debility. 49 

agony of mind that I now endure, when thinking of 
the evil consequences of my own past acts of self-pol- 
lution which I have practiced for the past five years ; 
I am now twenty-five years old, five feet ten in 
height, general health good, my strength is also good ; 
but my appetite fails me very often, by the time I 
have consumed two or three mouthfuls. I feel a desire 
to stop, my hunger is quite appeased. Sometimes I 
feel quite melancholy ; at other times I have a super- 
abundance of spirits. I am not much subject to pain, 
but sometimes after I have committed the act, I have 
felt a slight pain in the left testicle, and at other times 
in the passage of the penis ; at other times I have felt 
a dull pain in the left side, for two or three hours at 
once. I am subject to frequent and nightly emissions. 
In voiding urine I have seen seminal fluid run away 
from me, thin and unelaborated, especially when strain- 
ing at the last few drops, and the end of the yard is 
almost constantly met with fluid that escapes from me ; 
I have had much trouble and thought respecting one 
thing, and I do not know whether such a case ever came 
under your notice or not. It is this : the end of the yard 
still retains the foreskin or net, the glands are not yet 
permanently denuded. Please inform me by return, 
whether such a thing will be troublesome if I thought 
of getting married. Doctor, do not be afraid of giving 
your opinion ; let me know the worst ; would that you 
could cure me of this horrid malady. I shall know 
4 



50 General Debility and Nervous Exhaustion. 

no bounds to my feelings if you will kindly cure me, 
as I am suffering from impaired memory, and for- 
get myself altogether, being unconscious of other 
persons being present, and all to be attributed to this 
horrid practice. As I think I know others suffering 
from the same trouble I shall spare no pains to bring 
them to you for relief, as I expect to be. I inclose 
your fee, and shall ever remain, 

"Yours, etc., ." 

Such, my dear readers, are a few of the many letters 
I so constantly receive, all dwelling on this most de- 
basing sin, and as there are so many different minds and 
so various are the symptoms, that I must leave many 
thoughts to be filled by my readers, only asking them 
to be plain, and distinct in all their letters, that I may 
make a correct diagnosis, and treat them accordingly. 

There is no act that will so soon and so easily be- 
come habitual — as when tobacco and spirits are used it 
requires some time before one can accustom him- 
self to their use; but even in the first essay of self- 
pollution does one feel a new, wild, and intoxicating 
delight, to which the very secrecy by which it is com- 
mitted only adds to its excitement — and so the sufferer 
in the future, once having given himself up to this 
pernicious habit, has only a life of misery to look 
forward to, as it is too late to retrace that step, to 
blot out from the memory and conscience those new 



On Sexual and General Debility. 5 1 

ideas and sensations that lead one on step by step ; 
the inward monitor crying against it ; but his warnings 
not heeded, the conscience becomes seared and hard- 
ened, till its feeble voice, from oft-repeated sin, be- 
comes drowned in the mad and urgent calls of un- 
natural passion, and thus the mind depraved and 
losing its governing power, and uncleanness hav- 
ing obtained the mastery over the heart, it pur- 
sues its victim with lustful conceptions, at all times 
and in all places, and so we pass on, the nervous sys- 
tem disordered, and the brain may lose its balance, 
and one passes from disgust to indifference, misanthro- 
py, and melancholy, perhaps to madness — and even 
the gait of persons who practice this vice, becomes 
peculiar, so that one accustomed to this trouble can 
tell them at once, and one must not think that his 
secret is all his own ; but may this alarm him of the 
danger he runs, that he may stop his pernicious habit, 
and seek the proper medical advice that will relieve 
him of all his anxiety and worry of mind. So the 
solitary sensualist is the victim of the worst, most 
unbridled and tyrannical lust that the imagination 
can embody ; every fair and virtuous countenance 
that is new to him, only inspires him with some 
filthy idea, and excites him on, in secrecy, to fresh 
excesses, and the nervous system will sink under the 
rapid, unnatural whirl and denied repose. He is tor- 
tured by his anxious thoughts, and becomes moody 



52 General Debility and Nervous Exhaustion. 

and melancholy, not like the moping, melancholy 
lover, as his woes are but natural and rational, and 
can soon find an easy termination, by the fulfillment 
of all his hopes, in a bright and virtuous union. 

Whenever the virile capacity evinces the least de- 
gree of decadence, it should excite immediate con- 
cern, as the process of decay is in all cases a pro- 
gressive one. Every case of partial impotence, sooner 
or later becomes complete, unless arrested by the 
skillful physician ; and no confidence should be placed 
in the recuperative- powers of unaided nature to 
effect a restoration of the vital powers, as it will only 
end in disappointment, and the only true course to 
pursue is to seek the advice of those who have made 
this subject a life-long study, and where they will 
meet with proper sympathy and advice ; he may in- 
terpose the required treatment to arrest the process 
of disorganization, and start the process of repair 
and future health, and to imbue the organ of repro- 
duction with renewed vigor. 

We would now impress upon the minds of the 
reader that having given many of the symptoms that 
he should look for in his debility, let us see what 
may be some of the results to follow in the train of 
symptoms, as the natural circulation of the blood in 
the brain is disturbed by the baneful habit of self- 
pollution, and by its drain on the nervous system there- 
by causing great debility from these too frequent and 



On Sexual and General Debility. 53 

unnatural exertions, which have a tendency to cause 
atony, and a palsied and enfeebled state of the male 
organ, and so rendering it unfit for the natural and 
pleasant act of virtuous coition, so that frequently, 
in attempting the act of intercourse, no matter how 
great the previous excitement, the individual finds 
himself impotent and powerless, and partly from 
fear and anxiety, but mostly from absolute weariness 
and flaccidity of the penis, when, perhaps for many 
hours previous, it was in a state of constant and 
painful erection, from the sufferer's previous lascivious 
thoughts. 

All these observations, we may find, were also held 
by the ancients ; as in the time of Hippocrates, who 
wrote under the title of Tabes Dorsalis on the ills of 
self-abuse : " This disorder arises from the spinal 
marrow, and those who are given to unnatural en- 
joyments are afflicted with it. They have no fever, 
and though they eat well, they fall away and become 
consumptive. They feel as if a sting or a stitch 
descended from the head along the spinal marrow ; 
every time they go to stool or have occasion to make 
water, they shed a great quantity of the seminal 
liquor ; they are incapable of procreation, and they 
frequently dream of the act of coition ; walking par- 
ticularly in rugged paths, puts them out of breath 
and weakens them, occasioning a heaviness in the head 
and noise in the ears, which are succeeded by a 



54 General Debility and Nervous Exhaustion. 

violent fever that terminates their days." And 
further he says : " This man will not be capable of 
propagating his species unless the healing art afford 
him relief." Continuing, he says further, "That when 
this distemper continues for a length of time, it as- 
sumes various appearances in the constitution, and 
makes other stages under different characters ; if not 
rightly understood it may end in an atrophy or nerv- 
ous consumption, when the healing art may be un- 
availing." And we might quote numerous other 
writers of the olden and the present time to confirm 
all we have said, and to picture the evils of this self- 
debasing habit, in far more glowing colors than we 
have endeavored to portray. 

The effects of this habit, masturbation, is frequently 
the cause of non-development in the male organ, and 
also its power of erection becomes destroyed. Can 
we wonder at this, when we note the difference be- 
tween that act and the natural one ? As in the first 
case, if the seed vessels, the vesicular seminalis, are 
not sufficiently distended with the fluid that excites 
erection, it can be forced by unnatural friction to pro- 
duce a momentary discharge when nature refuses the 
necessary firmness for coition. In this way the testi- 
cles are called upon suddenly and violently to secrete 
a thin and worthless fluid, and the nerves of the 
penis are rendered sensible of an agreeable titillation 
without the natural adjunct, firm erection. Hence 



On Sexual and General Debility. 5 5 

when the votary of self-pollution attempts intercourse 
with the other sex, there is an absence of firmness in 
that organ to effect penetration and render the act 
complete, or he may partially succeed, only to have 
a premature emission, or no sensation of pleasure. 

In the above pages, I have tried to give an idea to 
the willing mind, sad though they may be, of the 
many consequences of those unnatural sensual enjoy- 
ments, so plainly and decidedly the reverse of that 
transporting emotion enjoyed in the love and caresses 
of a pure and virtuous union, and which counterbal- 
ance, in some measure, the luxurious fatigue conse- 
quent upon rational and temperate indulgence, to 
which the victim of self-abuse can never enjoy or 
know, and all these enjoyments can only exist in his 
imagination but to urge him on to further excesses, 
while the joy and pleasure of a true and virtuous 
union to the loved one will animate the circulation, 
restore the strength, support it, and give to mar- 
riage all its home-felt sweetness, that owing to the 
degradation of his soul, he can never realize this pure 
interchange of affection. 

This pernicious habit, so dreadful in its effect, is 
not alone confined to the male sex, unfortunately. 
This indulgence has found its way to the pure cham- 
ber of young unmarried girls, learned, perhaps, from 
older friends. One can hardly realize the great re- 
sponsibility of those whose duty it is to guard over 



56 General Debility and Nervous Exhaustion. 

their welfare, and to whom their morals are entrusted, 
that they should be watched in all their associations, 
and the books they read, that they may be pure and 
white as snow. As the same influence that entails 
early decrepitude on boys, will have its pernicious 
effects on our girls, that can hardly be believed, ex- 
cept by those whose profession brings them in daily 
contact with those who have forgotten their own 
modest nature, and indulge in such practices that may 
entail on their future much unhappiness and barren- 
ness, and may result in those persistent discharges, 
too common in the women of the present day, be- 
sides many serious ailments that will undermine their 
health and very existence. 

I will close my remarks on general debility, with a 
few words of advice and consolation to the sufferer 
thereby, and to offer him that sympathy he longs for : 
The virile powers can always be restored, but assur- 
edly only by judicious and appropriate treatment. 
The physician in ordinary practice relies on his aphro- 
disiacs, or medicines supposed to excite the amative 
passions, and to give tone to the failing system ; but 
failure ensues, because such remedies are not proper, 
and may do harm. We must attack the primary cause, 
and so restore the paralyzed condition of the genital 
nerves. Each case will present different features, so 
that the treatment should be ordered accordingly, and 
as appropriate treatment will infallibly restore man- 



On Sexual and General Debility. 57 

hood in all cases, every sufferer should engage the 
services of a physician, and they need skillful and 
scientific treatment in the use of direct local remedies, 
which none can give unless well skilled in their use, 
and have the necessary apparatus. These cases are 
beyond the use of internal medication. And, in con- 
clusion, let me impress upon your mind, my readers, 
the sometimes fatal results of delay, and if you are 
anxious or troubled with any of these symptoms, 
leading on to decay, or that you have, in the thought-, 
less hours of youth, when health and strength were 
at its height, indulged in these unnatural practices, 
and now feel its warning voices, turn your steps where 
you may be sure of proper advice and interest ; that, 
in the course of time, you may be restored to man- 
hood, in all its glorious feelings, and all its strength 
and independence ; that in the end you may find some 
true and fitting helpmate, that, with the little pledges 
of love and affection that will spring up in your path, 
guide and assist your steps to honor and reward in 
this life and the one to come. 



CHAPTER III. 

SPERMATORRHOEA, WITH ITS RESULTS, ETC., AS IN- 
VOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS AND IMPO- 
TENCE. 

As the semen or genital fluid is secreted by the 
testicles, it passes along the vas-deferens in its course 
through the inguinal canal to the base of the blad- 
der, and is there stored up for future use in the vesi- 
cate seminales, to be ejaculated during the act of 
copulation through the seminal duct, passing out of 
their openings or mouths to the urethra, and there 
mixed with the prostatic fluid from the prostate 
gland, and while stored away in the vesicles the wa- 
tery particles may be absorbed, so rendering it much 
stronger and concentrated, and so giving rise spon- 
taneously at certain intervals — if the individual is in 
full health and vigor — to a natural and physiological 
desire for sexual intercourse. 

Such, then, is the order and state when all the 

parts have their highest physical development ; and, 

as the act of evacuation is forced and unnecessary, 

just so does it become pernicious, and so bring on its 

(58) 



Spermatorrhoea. 59 

own pathological state, with all its train of symp- 
toms, in all those who may be addicted to excess of 
venery or that indulge in self-pollution. Hence it 
follows that all those addicted to this pernicious 
habit may have the power of exciting those organs 
to a seeming satisfactory result ; when, from the 
many previous evacuations and the consequent over- 
work that they have stimulated the reproductive or- 
gans to, will result in the ejaculation, containing 
nothing that can stimulate, and produce the fe- 
cundatory principle. Nor may the excitement last 
sufficiently to complete the marital act, or there may 
be a premature ejaculation of semen, caused only by 
the irritable vessels pouring out a thin mucous dis- 
charge with no vivifying power, and so rendering the 
act both unsatisfactory to himself and his compan- 
ion, who is, perhaps, the one above all others his 
companion for life, and who must look to him (and 
does expect from him) all the delights and pleas- 
ures of the marriage bed. 

From this constant source of irritation the vesi- 
cales seminales or receptacles are unable to retain 
this vital fluid brought to them by the testicles, and 
so will the victim of his own past errors suffer from 
all the various symptoms that are the result of 
self-abuse ; and, should this fraction of manhood 
contract the marriage vow and lead to the 
bridal bed some pure and lovely creature to enjoy 



60 Spermatorrhoea. 

that highest of all our enjoyments of this earth, he 
will only bring on disappointment and sorrow from 
having reduced himself to a state of helplessness and 
impotence ; or, if he may complete the act, a thin, 
gleety drain is all he can furnish, with no impregnating 
power; and should it contain any of the vital princi- 
ples, they are so puny and diseased that the offspring 
can only suffer from such an origin. These various 
results are but a fraction in the troubles that will 
come to all those who, from past abuse, have brought 
on the many forms of seminal weakness, and that re- 
quire so much tact and skill on the part of the medi- 
cal man, and fortitude and confidence on the part of 
a patient, to restore his generative organs to a state 
of health. 

This brings us to the subject-matter of this chap- 
ter, called spermatorrhoea, or seminal weakness, which 
is my description of this true disease. I shall divide 
it into two classifications ; first, we have true sperma- 
torrhoea, or loss of the spermatic fluid, without sexual 
desire or excitement ; and false spermatorrhoea (very 
similar), in which there are nocturnal emissions very 
frequent, when diurnal emissions take place on any 
sexual thought, and a urethral discharge of a glairy 
fluid that attends defecation or evacuation of the 
bowels, and when erections with discharge follow the 
slightest irritation — such as that produced by riding 
or walking, from the friction of trousers, etc. These 



Spermatorrhea. 61 

cases are very frequent, and, as such, they are the 
results of masturbation — from which and to guard 
against, I would warn all my readers. These are but 
the first symptoms and warning voices that precede 
true spermatorrhoea — a result that will surely follow 
with all its fearful and debasing train of symptoms ; 
and so these emissions, though they be attended 
with a pleasurable excitement, should be checked 
by the proper treatment for such cases, as they will 
only lead on to the true disease, with the whole 
genital tract in a state of hyperesthesia, or excessive 
sensibility, due to false spermatorrhoea, that will 
surely lead on to the true variety. 

And what may we expect? First, a stain upon 
the linen perhaps, or a strange feeling of weakness, 
and perhaps an entire absence of the natural erection, 
which generally occurs when first waking in the 
morning, and though the sleep may not be broken 
to the sufferer, conscious yet, he finds the evidence 
of his weakness and disease in the morning, and can 
he then wonder at his feelings of lassitude and de- 
spondency ? and should he not seek at once the prop- 
er relief and advice, that he may have the most 
prompt and energetic treatment for the relief of his 
impending mischief — true spermatorrhoea ? These oc- 
curring very frequently, the " emissions denote a mor- 
bid erethism and weakness of the organs of generation," 
and may occur nightly or several times during the 



62 Spermatorrhoea. 

night, and as they cause their debilitating effect, so 
may they increase in number, even without an erec- 
tion, and with little or no venereal excitement — the 
patient only aware of his weakness from the seminal 
stains. This is the result to all those who have been 
addicted to venereal excesses or the unnatural abuse 
of the sexual function. The mind, particularly, if the 
affection be attributable to unnatural abuse, becomes 
greatly depressed, and the patient, apprehensive of 
impotence with all its dreadful symptoms, passes on 
until his emissions may become diurnal as well as 
nocturnal, in which the seminal emission may pass 
backward into the bladder ; it will then show itself in 
the urine, or may be expelled at the last portion of 
the act of micturation or passing the urine, and so 
the patient passes onward, neglecting to seek the 
proper advice, or staving off the evil day, until he be- 
comes a confirmed hypochondriac, with nervousness, 
impaired nutrition, lassitude, weakness of the limbs 
and back, with no capacity for work or study, aversion 
to society, and loss of memory, with love of solitude, 
timidity, self-distrust, dizziness, headache, pains, weak- 
ness of the eyes, and pimples on the face ; he notices 
that the testicles are loose and dangling, with cold- 
ness of the glans-penis, and short, and perhaps pain- 
ful erection. The progress from one stage to another, 
or from false to true spermatorrhoea, is very gradual, 
and to the patient almost imperceptible. It can only 



Spermatorrhoea. 63 

be detected by the experienced eye, as the seminal 
losses are sometimes so hidden from view that we 
only make a true diagnosis by microscopical exami- 
nation of the urine. 

In the next place, through these practices of onan- 
ism or venereal excesses, the testicles acquire a mor- 
bid habit or sensitiveness that on the slightest local 
irritation their secretive powers are called into action, 
and so by keeping them constantly employed they 
become impaired, and are no longer fit to supply and 
expend that most vivifying fluid at proper intervals 
which makes us truly men, and that we may enjoy dur- 
ing an honorable and natural life. But if the youth, in 
all his ignorance of the laws of life and health, seeks 
to force his manhood, and so causes the too frequent 
and premature expulsion of the semen, thereby forcing 
the testicles on to their work before their delicate or- 
ganization has been perfected for their true physio- 
logical functions, this must, and naturally will, take 
on a morbid action, and become in a chronic state of 
disease, and seminal and general debility must cer- 
tainly ensue. 

We may quote the words of one high in the profes- 
sion, and who has devoted a life-long work to this 
special study. In his description of the symptoms, 
he says: " The involuntary emissions may occur both 
day and night ; they take place as often as three or 
four times a week, and not unfrequently two or three 



64 Spermatorrhoea. 

times in one night, sometimes with and sometimes 
without dreams, though it is probable that the dreams 
occur in all cases, but are at times forgotten. On 
leaving his couch, the patient feels much exhausted, 
and frequently finds that he has perspired much during 
the night. A trembling weakness has seized upon his 
limbs ; he has no appetite for the morning meal, to 
which a healthy appetite addresses itself with so 
much good-will. The diurnal emissions happen at 
urinating and at stool, and in almost all patients we 
find more or less dribbling away. In some it is per- 
ceptible by palpable drops more or less frequent, and 
in others by a continual moisture of the lips of the 
meatus urinarius. ,, So we can examine the most 
palpable and obvious outlines of this wide-spread 
scourge, consider the mild, yet insidious encroach- 
ments of this disease, giving us its first warnings in 
those changes and symptoms which are the sure indi- 
cations of a vile and pernicious habit, for which the 
patient at first is not to blame, but should heed the 
warning voice and seek the proper relief. Hence the 
physician, careful not to wound the tender, acutely- 
sensitive nature, should grant him all that considera- 
tion and sympathy compatible with a delicate and 
refined counselor of the human race. 

Spermatorrhoea, although so destructive to both 
mind and body, is a common affection, that has suf- 
fered much from neglect and ill-treatment before com- 



Spermatorrhoea. 65 

ing to the notice of the physician. And why ? because 
the young man afflicted with this malady naturally 
shrinks from consulting the family physician, and if 
he do so, it is only for the symptoms, not for the true 
disease, and so the primary trouble is overlooked or 
concealed; the patient still continues to suffer. Among 
the many remote symptoms of this affection, we may 
mention dyspepsia, in its many forms, arising from gas- 
tric disturbance ; and also constipation and loss of ap- 
petite, that will not yield to the many remedies the 
pharmacopoeia contains at the present day, because 
this trouble is complicated with or caused by sper- 
matorrhoea, and all the remedies are in vain or worse 
than useless unless the seminal loss be checked, and 
its cause thoroughly cured. 

These words may also apply to many other diseases 
to which the human body is liable, no matter what the 
symptoms, and so making manifest the value of 
consulting one who has made all the results and symp- 
toms of disease of the reproductive organ his special 
study and thought, and the patient will have at least 
the satisfaction of knowing if he is sexually unsound. 
That he may, if so, be treated accordingly, or if he 
does not heed this warning he may go on from period 
to period, taking vast quantities of useless drugs, and 
all to no purpose. No doubt, each one is functionally 
affected, and they are only secondary, but are aggra- 
vated by being treated as primary troubles, while the 
5 



66 Spermatorrhoea. 

real cause is neglected until some organic lesion has 
occurred. 

There is no doubt whatever that many men suffer 
from false or spurious spermatorrhoea, and from nerv- 
ous prostration and physical exhaustion, who have 
never had any true seminal weakness or disorder of 
the reproductive organs. Hypochondriacs and nerv- 
ous individuals, who are in the habit of brooding over 
their ailments, and particularly those who read the 
exciting and sensational advertisements in the news- 
papers of the day, imagine they are afflicted with all 
the symptoms of this malady, especially if at any time 
they have provoked a cause in their early youth, and 
come to me firmly believing that they are suffering 
from some form or other of these diseases, when on 
careful and correct examination I found them quite 
free from any disorder of the genital organs, and in 
such cases there is very great difficulty to convince 
my patient of the true state of his mental troubles, as 
his nervous system and feelings had been worked up 
to a pitch of excitement, and all his symptoms exag- 
gerated by sensational readings. 

I have given an account of the symptoms of this 
malady, and can only advise all those who are af- 
flicted, that in the treatment they must listen to rea- 
son and judgment, and exercise their powers of self- 
control, to seek cheerful company, avoid thinking over 
their many real or imaginary troubles, and to give up 



Spermatorrhoea. 67 

sedentary employments, and mental occupation, with 
change of scene ; and would point out to them the ne- 
cessity of submitting to a thorough examination, that 
the true nature of their malady may be discovered, 
and a correct diagnosis be given, and proper treat- 
ment entered upon to their future happiness. 

As the transmission to the second stage, or true 
spermatorrhoea, is very gradual and almost imper- 
ceptible, I will try and give my readers some account 
of the phenomena observed in this most pernicious 
disease. The emissions at first are attended with erec- 
tion and all the sensation of the erotic state begin in 
time to occur, without either erection or sensation, 
and ultimately take place during the day when the 
bowels are moved at stool, or the urine passed, and 
sometimes with the excitement caused by the pres- 
ence of female society ; in bad cases there is an 
almost constant discharge or oozing of the semen and 
loss of the power of retention, owing to the lax con- 
dition of the mouths of the seminal ducts in the 
prostatic sinus at the veramontanum, and the pa- 
tients are much worried from their continued nervous- 
ness, incapacity for business matters, with depression 
of spirits, aversion to society, etc., and the loss of 
semen that occurred with sensation having stopped, 
they do not realize that they have entered upon a 
much worse phase of the disease, and that the loss of 
semen that was formerly only occasional in nocturnal 



68 Spermatorrhoea. 

emissions, is now almost constant, it being carried off 
by the urine, and at each evacuation of the bowels. 
To explain this trouble we find, if the reader will 
refer to our remarks on anatomy, that as the semen 
passes from the testes along the seminal ducts or vasa 
differentia, they have sufficient power, in a healthy 
state, of retention of the seminal fluid in the ducts 
and vesicles ; and when from the abuse of the sexual 
functions they become weakened and relaxed and 
somewhat dilated, so allowing the semen to escape 
involuntarily on the slightest excitement, passing 
either outward or backward to the bladder, and so 
being voided with the urine, may not be noticed ; it 
is only by the marvelous power of the microscope 
that we have been able to diagnose this most important 
fact that would have passed undiscovered, and to which 
hundreds have suffered without relief, or a suspicion 
as to the actual cause ; but now, thanks to the great 
step science has taken, and to the practiced eye, we 
can tell the true casue of all these obscure symptoms 
the victims of spermatorrhoea may suffer from, and 
that will end in true impotence and perhaps sterility. 
That we all desire to perpetuate our species is an 
established fact. It is one of the promptings of all 
our most true passions, and is a true function of nat- 
ure, and as natural as hunger. This desire comes on 
at a certain age in both males and females, and is 
called Puberty; a very critical time, at which our 



Spermatorrlioea. 69 

frames seem to be perfected, and only need further 
development to a perfect manhood. At this period 
there seems to be a total change, both mental and 
bodily ; the boy becomes a man, with his whole ap- 
pearance changed, and his countenance showing in- 
tellect and decision ; his voice becomes rough and 
manly, and his cheeks and lips become shaded a 
delicate brown ; his limbs are firm, his step erect 
and vigorous, and he no longer delights in those 
occupations and amusements which he so much en- 
joyed before. 

These changes are all the more marked in the fe- 
male sex, and the body undergoes still greater altera- 
tions as they become fully developed ; the bust en- 
larged, the eyes sparkle with vividness, and the 
periodical indisposition peculiar to her sex com- 
mences, and her girlish playfulness is exchanged for 
a pleasing bashfulness and modesty, her mind occupied 
with ideas pure, but strange and absorbing, and she 
is a woman — " God's fairest work." 

Hence one can realize that puberty is a truly criti- 
cal period of life, and unless a man has passed this 
time pure and undefiled by self-pollution, he is not 
justified in entering upon the married state, and par- 
ticularly if he has any of the slightest symptoms of 
this trouble, until he has undergone a careful and thor- 
ough examination at the hands of an expert before 
he enters into that most solemn engagement, if he 



70 Spermatorrhoea. 

would avoid the most refined cruelty to an innocent 
yet affectionate woman, to ask his conscience well and 
truly whether there be any bar or impediment to 
that union, and if suspicion be even delicately and 
tremblingly alive, let him wait until, reassured of his 
partially lost powers, he may with confidence meet 
his blushing bride. 

This constant draining of the seminal fluid occur- 
ring from excessive venery or from self-abuse, is not 
always the same in different individuals, as it varies 
in its effects, some of them being not absolutely im- 
potent, but with their powers very, very much im- 
paired, and so with an undisguised effort they may 
accomplish the sexual act occasionally, but probably 
to the disgust of the female ; and others, though un- 
prolific, are competent at long intervals, their powers, 
though weakened, are not altogether destroyed ; for 
with due care, and the really steady employment of 
judicious measures, this evil may be averted, and the 
victim in time restored to health and happiness. 
One should be prompt in seeking his relief, as it is 
of the first importance that these cases should be 
seen as soon as possible, and no time thrown away 
now, by improper treatment, until it is too late for 
success in skillful treatment, but will leave the blun- 
dering, bungling quack far behind. And here we 
must excite without irritating, and on no account 
should you tamper or temporize with this infirmity in 



Spermatorrhoea. 71 

the idle hope that it will correct itself in time, as sad 
experience proves the contrary. 

We must not pass by genital malformation in its va- 
rious grades as being one of the causes of impotence, 
as the prepuce may be adhered to the glands, or so 
bound down to the fraenum that without a trifling 
operation the act of copulation would be almost 
incomplete ; phimosis and paraphimosis may also 
render the act inefficient, and perhaps excessively 
painful to the female, and almost devoid of all pleas- 
urable excitement to the sufferer by these malfor- 
mations, or they may suffer from some unnatural 
curvature of the penis, the lateral being the most 
common, and causing much inconvenience, or the pe- 
nis may be too small, or in such excessive proportion 
as to give no satisfaction. We also have the various 
forms in which the meatus urinarius is not situated 
at the end of the glands, but placed too far back, and 
when above or below, called Epispadias or Hypospa- 
dias, respectively ; these are all congenital, and of 
course not the fault of the victim, but they will all be 
treated of in our section of surgical diseases, in which 
we will explain their various appearance, and point 
out the advisability of a successful operation at the 
hands of a skillful surgeon. There are also other causes 
that will influence the result, among which I may 
mention the disorders of the urinary and genital or- 
gans, as thickening of the bladder, stricture, and the 



72 Spermatorrhoea. 

various affections of the testicles and prostate gland, 
and all cases of so-called hermaphrodism. I might con- 
tinue to enumerate causes and effects in relation to 
this subject, that are in almost all cases amenable to 
treatment, or in which the most positive complaint, 
by proper ingenuity and surgical interference, be ren- 
dered at least very palliative, by which a satisfactory 
object can be gained ; and above all, and in all cases, 
we would advise an intimate consultation, in which 
the patient may rely on proper sympathy and advice 
in his affliction. I am repeatedly consulted by persons 
complaining of the absence of offspring, due to impo- 
tence from some cause, and after careful consultation, 
have been able to render them very efficient help in 
this matter, and in many cases enable them to realize 
their fondest hopes and desires, proving that these 
cases are not so utterly hopeless as may seem to be the 
case, and that with proper tact, and the full confidence 
of the patient, I am enabled to promise them very 
material relief, in spite of the many unfavorable 
prognoses of some medical writers on these subjects. 
Again, with women I find many causes of barren- 
ness, first that may be congenital, and that in some 
cases can be relieved by proper treatment ; also, we 
find the most frequent trouble common among that 
sex — the leucorrhcea, or " whites " — and also the 
many irregularities of the menses, in which there may 
be retention or profusion of the menstrual secretion, 



Spermatorrhoea. 73 

with too much frequency in their periods ; and all 
these troubles we find under the head of chlorosis, or 
green -sickness, amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, and 
menorrhagia, or excessive flooding ; and frequently it 
may be due to the peculiar temperament of the fe- 
males, shown by aversion, reserve, or indifference, and 
which renders them unsusceptible of anything more 
than a mere passive submission to their husband's 
embraces, and so may convert love to hatred, and 
make the bridal-bed a couch of thorns instead of one 
of roses and pleasure ; these things may be amenable 
to proper advice and treatment. There are other 
causes of barrenness of congenital origin that may af- 
fect the womb, or ovaries, or entire closure of the 
vagina itself, and that it would be impossible to give 
a satisfactory opinion about without a close and per- 
fect examination. 

Before proceeding to the treatment of this most 
interesting subject, as well to the patient as the phy- 
sician, I would state that a careful examination of all 
these many symptoms, which I have endeavored to 
portray as succinctly as possible, show the many in- 
terruptions to sexual conquest that may occur, and 
to explain in plain and forcible language the results 
that a sufferer may look forward to without proper 
advice and treatment, and that he may see the true 
cause of all his sufferings, and to point out to him the 
way of relief; that in the due course of time he can 



74 Spermatorrhoea. 

truly say, " I am a man again " among his fellow- 
men ; that he should not continue to suffer while all 
around him seem full of vigor and health to enjoy 
those precious gifts that man has been endowed with ; 
and to this happy state it has been my blessed privi- 
lege to bring many a poor sufferer, coming to me with 
his mind racked with melancholy, from the effects of 
his early, and, at first, innocent, indulgence of a vice 
contrary to the laws of God and man. 



CHAPTER IV. 

TREATMENT OF SPERMATORRHOEA, ETC. 

In entering on this subject with my readers, I 
would tell them that the success by which we would 
terminate our treatment will depend, in a great meas- 
ure, upon himself, and must prepare the most de- 
termined resolution to follow all the minute direc- 
tions in their most literal sense ; to determine that 
hereafter he will be master of his own passions, and 
not allow them to control him in any way, or else he 
can not enjoy peace or happiness ; and when this 
mastery is gained, then, and not till then, should he 
come to us for that peculiar treatment so particularly 
suited to those infirmities. So my object will be at 
first to restore the organs as far as possible to a state 
of health by abstinence, and to renew and strengthen 
the general health. And to accomplish this object, 
he must first drive away all melancholy, foreboding, 
and unnecessary doubt, assisted and guided by gentle 
and judicious advice, that he may look forward to the 
" bright silver lining " with hope and happiness, and 
to keep his thoughts busy, if possible, with sober 

(75) 



j6 Treatment of Spermatorrhoea. 

business and worldly affairs, and indulge in a reason- 
able amount of amusement, the cultivation of cheer- 
ful and pleasant society, and to drive away all thoughts 
that tend to excite the passions and drag him down 
only deeper in the mire of trouble and dismay ; his 
reading should be light and varied, and somewhat 
studious, as those of history and some of our best 
novels, and also the daily attention to the news of the 
day, in those mighty organs that circulate throughout 
the world, the daily newspapers; and as he would 
choose his reading, so should he be even more particular 
in the choice of his daily companions, not those whose 
daily thought and conversation only tend toward 
lewd and indecent subjects that excite the mind and 
degrade the soul ; as it has been truly said, " Show 
me the company a man keeps and I can tell his char- 
acter; " as one must be affected more or less by the 
intimacy of another, be it for better or worse ; and I 
regret that young men of the present day are too apt 
to pass away valuable time in loose and filthy con- 
versation, showing a foul heart and a degraded mind, 
not fit for the association of pure and honest-minded 
men, whose conversation and example would tend to 
lead one in the paths of virtue, and to the homes of 
peace and happiness, and in such places may one 
seek the society of pure and virtuous women, who, 
by their many graces and pure presence, would lead 
him to a higher and nobler life. 



Treatment of Spermatorrhoea. 77 

How many young men with spirits high and a feeling 
to strike out for themselves, leave the precious influ- 
ence of their paternal roof to meet the cold sympathy 
of " strangers in a strange land." At this critical 
period how necessary it is that the parents should se- 
cure for them a residence in some well-regulated 
family, that they may continue all their former home 
influence and comforts, and not to leave them to 
seek the solitude of hotel life, amid all the tempta- 
tions that may beset them in their choice of compan- 
ions and associates. Little can we judge of the many 
troubles neglect of these simple precautions might 
cause, and from which many a young man has dated 
his downfall in the path of debauchery, to end in vio- 
lent dissipation. And while exercising the mind in 
these pleasant paths, let us not forget the body in all 
its perfect form, that we may strengthen and develop 
one with the other by suitable exercise and change 
of air and scene, when possible, with walking, riding 
— but only moderately on horseback — and other out- 
door exercises. 

There is no disease in all the text-books that is so 
slow and insidious in its onward progress as this, and 
so the sufferer passes on from day to day, seldom 
feeling so ill as to make it necessary to seek proper 
medical advice, and so he passes on till, by repeated 
and continued prostration, he has injured the gener- 
ative organs and perhaps the constitution of the in- 



78 Treatment of Spermatorrhoea. 

dividual, and these symptoms so diversified in their 
nature, that result from self-pollution, resemble in 
many respects those diseases of an entirely different 
nature, and by which the ordinary physician's atten- 
tion is engrossed, thereby leading him away from the 
true cause of the patient's complaint, and disappoint- 
ment is the result of his treatment, so the evil work 
proceeds until when its true cause is suspected it 
may be too late to restore the organs to their natural 
vigor, and then the case demands and should receive 
our most careful and considerate attention, and then 
will the patient be disappointed in all his efforts at 
relief, with the sedative powers of leaden girdles, the 
cooling properties of nitre, or the anti-spasmodic 
virtue of camphor, and should turn his step to the 
proper paths of skillful advice. 

So in all our treatment we should first seek to re- 
move the cause, to go back to the first steps from the 
paths of mankind, and to teach the mind to elevate 
itself to a higher and nobler sphere, that he may not 
relapse to his former darkness, but become a convert 
to chastity and honor — and will the usual dosing ot 
tonics ever be of much service in the treatment of 
seminal weakness? As the true seminal fluid is ob- 
tained principally from the most vital portions of the 
blood, and is manufactured and elaborated by the 
peculiar functions of the testicles, and so in an ex- 
cessive drain on this vital fluid, we find the whole 



Treatment of Spermatorrhoea. 79 

system weakened and debilitated, which renders the 
generative organs inert and useless, and this impor- 
tant deficiency can be supplied only by the employ- 
ment of such peculiar combinations as will exert a 
nutritious, warm, and invigorating effect on the sys- 
tem, and prevent and replace the excessive drain 
upon it, so to impart tone and strength to the semi- 
nal vessels, and not to overdo and produce irritation ; 
nor should we over-excite the generative powers, b.ut 
only exhibit those remedies that will remove the 
proximate cause of all this disease and debility, and 
restore to the system its lost energies, by the admin- 
istration and application of those remedies that 
years of practice and experience have proven to me 
the only true and correct method of treatment, es- 
pecially all those cases of both true and false sperma- 
torrhoea, that I have endeavored to explain in these 
pages — and just here I would like to say, that I have 
made the subject of this disease a matter of deep 
and constant study and thought, and that I believe 
I have adopted and discovered a new method by 
which I can act directly on the mouth of the seminal 
ducts, at their opening in the prostatic sinus, with the 
most powerful tonic known to science, therefore giving 
tone and strength to this relaxtion and dilatation of 
these mouths or valves, and their efferent ducts of 
the vesiculae seminales ; this result is the most neces- 
sary to secure, and it requires a most familiar knowl- 



80 Treatment of Spermatorrhoea. 

edge of the anatomy of the parts and all their inti- 
mate relations to the important vessels and nerves 
surrounding the urethra in its membranous portion, 
and to combine with the scientific local treatment, 
the administration of such drugs as may exert a 
most powerful influence on the system at large, that 
we may increase and multiply the vivifying powers 
of the blood, that as it circulates through these im- 
portant organs, it may nourish and restore them to 
their former vigor and strength. 

The ordinary modes of treatment are many and 
various, but all seem to be about the same, with their 
principal dependence on the common aphrodisiacs ; 
and that in their permanent results may be much 
more dangerous than beneficial, as they act like most 
strong stimulants, whose action is but temporary, 
only to be succeeded by a depression of the vital 
powers, and may pass onward to a confirmed and in- 
curable impotency ; for this reason they should sel- 
dom be employed, unless in a few special cases in 
which they may benefit. I can and do give such 
medicines as will — first, acting slowly through the 
constitution, invigorate and impart strength to the 
genital organs, and will be permanent in their effects, 
though gentle in their action ; so that they can not 
possibly harm the system, but strengthen and devel- 
op it in all its parts, and it does not make any differ- 
ence if the sufferer be afflicted with false or true 



Treatment of Spermatorrhoea, 81 

spermatorrhoea, they are adapted for each condition ; 
when, combined with the proper local treatment, my 
new method for this disease, adapted and perfected by 
myself, so that with steady perseverance and an hon- 
est confidence, I can assure all who will intrust their 
cases to my judgment before it is too late, an honest 
and speedy cure and restoration to manly health in a 
shorter or longer period — according as the peculiar 
features of the case are presented to me. 

And in all cases in which these nocturnal emissions 
or diurnal pollutions may affect or undermine the 
general health of the patient, we must first check 
the constant and injurious drain on the genital sys- 
tem ; and, having accomplished this result, I en- 
deavor to repair the mischief done by removing all 
sources of irritability, and by direct application give 
the seminal duct and vesicles that power of retention 
— the loss of which was the sole cause of all the 
trouble, and by removing which I abate and restore 
all the normal functions of the mind and body, that 
they may continue in a state of health, and that their 
possessor, once the victim of so much bodily and 
mental torture, may henceforward be a man possessed 
of all his faculties, and in time the progenitor and 
support of a healthy and intelligent family. 
6 



CHAPTER V. 

MARRIAGE — ITS DUTIES AND EXCESSES, WITH SOME 
REMARKS ON THE DISEASES, ETC., OF WOMEN. 

It is a divine law that man should seek woman in 
marriage, that he may fulfill the decree to " Increase 
and multiply/' and so form a bond of union between 
the sterner sex and the tender sympathies of woman. 
These natural desires and promptings of nature cause 
us to leave homes where we have passed the sunny 
period of childhood, the gentle influence of loving 
parents, and all the sweet and chastening influences 
of the home circle, to seek a fame and fortune per- 
haps in a strange land, and with us to take that 
well-chosen one to ever love and cherish, and who 
should be to us " the one and only one." 

This is the great and lasting turning period in a 
man's life, in which he must not only seek a fortune, 
but should seek to perpetuate his race with beings 
endowed with every earthly attainment. Hence, to 
persons properly constituted — both bodily and men- 
tally — there can be no greater happiness than that 
derived from mutual intercourse, prompted by the 
mutual love and endearments of an affectionate 
(82) 



Marriage. 83 

couple " all in all to each other." How different from 
the embraces of the frail one, who only offers the ve- 
hicle of sensuality for the " filthy lucre " at any time 
and place. All her charms and blandishments are 
hollow and unreal, and her smiles and caresses the 
common property of all who care to seek them. It 
is but the excitement of a moment, and then forgot- 
ten, and perhaps regretted deeply. But with that one 
pure being, who gives herself up wholly to her hus- 
band alone, how chaste and pure are her embraces, 
and how encouraging her smile ; and what man can 
be such a cynic as to refuse and pass by such delights ! 
And to such as would enjoy all these delights, as we 
should enjoy them in perfect health and strength, 
nature has provided for them bountifully and has put 
the enjoyment in his power, will he only stretch forth 
his arm and obtain and possess it. But nature s laws 
will not be pushed aside and trodden upon, nor, at 
the same time, we must not be too lavish with all 
those blessings she has bestowed upon us. Excessive 
indulgence must not drain the cup of pleasure to its 
dregs and have it still. Hence, we find a cause of 
much unhappiness with those who seek the marriage 
bed, and which sow the seeds of so much misery in 
after-life. 

Not only as it may affect the husband in his sex- 
ual powers, but this constant excessive indulgence 
has its direct influence on the precious health of 



84 Marriage. 

woman, and it is almost the constant cause of all 
those distressing female complaints so common at the 
present day and that will so seriously affect their gen- 
eral health and in many cases impair their health be- 
yond redemption, only to linger on until a merciful 
Providence terminates all their sufferings. So many 
of these unfortunates, who will travel on their weary 
path bearing all these burdens, that, from a false 
sense of modesty, they will not seek the advice and 
counsel of some able physician. And what are those 
many diseases, etc., peculiar to the female sex that 
may be brought on by these indulgences and some- 
times the secret habits of girlhood ? I will try and 
mention them according to their most common oc- 
currence. 

Fluor albus, or leucorrhcea. — This very common dis- 
ease is called the whites, and is almost universal — 
occurring in both the married and single, old and 
young, and may even appear in the infant or the 
aged. It appears in the form of a discharge from the 
vagina, and may have the appearance of mucus or 
pus, or even like green water or milk, the color vary- 
ing from white, yellow, or greenish ; or it may be 
quite colorless, and the quantity will vary very much 
in different individuals. 

This discharge is very annoying in its constancy, 
abundance, and irritating properties, and may be ac- 
companied by some constitutional disturbance. In 



Marriage. 85 

the location of this disease we generally divide it into 
two varieties — vaginal and uterine — according to the 
origin of the discharge, and we find it caused by 
those influences causing congestion, and from preced- 
ing inflammation ; of the first or congestive causes, 
are excessive coition, deranged menstruation, vicious 
habits, various dissipations of any sort, debility, fre- 
quent childbirth, and all those causes which debili- 
tate the general system ; and of the second or in- 
flammatory causes, the various affections of the 
uterus or womb-disease, as malpositions, and result- 
ing in sterility, vaginitis, vulvitis, and pruritus vulvae. 
So in all cases we must first find the exciting cause 
that produces it, and that must be removed, and we 
must also prevent this disease from becoming chronic 
in its nature — as it has a decided tendency to become 
so, and then the symptoms are much more serious — 
as the female will complain of pains in the back and 
a weight in the lower part of the abdomen ; the ap- 
petite becomes poor, with palpitation of the heart, 
and headache, giddiness, pain in the breast, etc. ; the 
skin feels chilly and the head hot, and hysterical 
symptoms may become very decided, passing on to 
continual melancholy. 

The treatment of this distressing disease is very 
varied, as the causes are. First we must attend to 
the general health, to improve it, and alter the condi- 
tion of the blood, at the same time using the various 



86 Marriage. 

local injections of astringent properties, as infusions 
of oak bark, alum, sulphate of zinc, with perfect 
rest in all cases. The best remedy that I have used 
in many cases is galvanism, by means of a large me- 
tallic bougie, and will succeed when all other means 
fail. It seems to impart tone to the membranes, and 
effects a change both in the character and the quantity 
of the discharge in a very short time. Leucorrhoea 
is, however, in most cases, so complicated with other 
affections, either as cause or effect, that we can not 
lay down any general plan of treatment, as it must 
be varied to suit each particular case. By pursuing 
a certain course with one patient, merely because it 
was successful with another, we may make matters 
worse instead of effecting a cure. 

It should always be borne carefully in mind, that 
the mere discharge from the vagina does not always 
constitute or indicate leucorrhoea, as it may arise from 
other diseases, as an ulcer, abscess, or cancer of the 
womb ; and hence the great necessity of a positive 
diagnosis at the start, that the patient may have the 
proper treatment. 

The next most common cause of woman's suffering- 
I find during my practice, to be the various malpo- 
sitions of the womb, as it may sink down from its 
natural position, fall over forward, backward, or lat- 
erally, or it may be bent upon itself; of these mal- 
positions, the falling or sinking downward, called 



Marriage. 87 

prolapsus uteri of the womb, are the most common ; 
and the other positions are the different modi- 
fications of it, with some different symptoms peculiar 
to each ; but in all these positions it is absolutely 
necessary to make an examination, that the true po- 
sition of the womb may be distinctly made out, and 
then to be carefully and properly replaced in its 
normal position, and by suitable after-treatment, 
such as wet bandages and proper hygienic means, 
until the various ligaments have retracted to their 
normal length, and so keep the womb in its place in 
the pelvis. The causes that produce these unnat- 
ural positions of the womb are many and. various, 
such as wearing corsets, violent exercise, running up- 
stairs, reaching upwards, constipation, and neglect of 
the calls of nature, injuries at childbirth, and rising 
too soon after, etc., and may result in any one of 
those different positions, which will be shown to the 
patient by the following symptoms, as pain and 
dragging sensations in the back, leucorrhcea, constant 
desire to pass water, constipation, unable to take 
exercise, stoppage of the menses, or a very irregular 
flow, and the whole system becoming deranged, and 
the strength fails, making it so important that the 
womb should be carefully returned to its proper po- 
sition in the pelvis, and then to reduce all signs of 
inflammation by rest and cooling applications, and the 
retention of the womb in its position by a proper 



.88 Marriage. 

pessary; and I can not urge too strongly upon all my 
patients the absolute necessity of attending to those 
malpositions at once, that they may be relieved of 
so much suffering and misery. In my treatment of 
these cases I have used with the other means the 
galvanic method, and as I have the most complete 
appliances, I have been very successful in all my 
cases, as it seems to have a particular tonic effect on 
those organs, thereby rendering the uterine ligaments 
so much stronger to hold the uterus in its place. 

Of the many affections of the uterus, we find that 
the menstrual flow is often very irregular or excess- 
ive; but chief among which, I find the affection of 
amenorrhea, or complete stoppage of the menses, the 
most frequent. The menses are due to a true hem- 
orrhage, dependent on the process of ovulation, in 
which once in every twenty-eight days one or more 
ovules in each ovary will burst its envelope, and 
entering the Fallopian tubes, by its fimbriated ex- 
tremity, pass downward to the womb. This pro- 
cess in the ovaries is attended by more or less con- 
gestion and nervous exalation, and through the gan- 
glionic system of nerves connecting the uterus with 
the ovaries, that organ is sympathetically affected 
and undergoes congestion also, then the uterus be- 
comes heavy, sinks in the pelvis, and its mucous 
membrane swollen and turgid, with the vessels ex- 
cessively dilated ; and as these minute vessels rup- 



Marriage. 89 

ture, we have the menstrual hemorrhage or flow, and 
for the proper performance of these normal functions 
we must see that the uterus, ovaries, and vagina are 
in a perfect state of health and vigor ; that the blood 
must be in its normal state, and that the nervous 
system governing the relations of these two impor- 
tant organs must be unimpaired in tone. 

Hence those influences that may disorder any of 
these important functions, may check ovulation, the 
great moving cause of menstruation, and thus pre- 
vent the sympathetic congestion of the uterus nec- 
essary to rupture the uterine vessels, or oppose the 
discharge of blood from the uterus, and we have 
the pathological condition called amenorrhea. This 
non- performance of the function of menstruation 
may be productive of many constitutional evils, as 
chlorosis or green-sickness, phthisis or consumption, 
dropsical effusions, etc. Now, the causes that bring 
on this condition may be due to some malformation 
of the organs of generation, some abnormal state of 
the blood, or it may be due to some disarrangement 
of the nervous system, some of them having a mor- 
bid effect, and others merely opposing mechanical 
obstructions. In reference to this subject in which 
we have amenorrhoea from atony of the nervous 
system, it has been well described by Prof. Hodge, 
of Philadelphia, under the name of sedation : It 
consists in a decrease of the excitability, vigor, and 



90 Marriage. 

activity of the nervous agency which controls the 
functions of the different organs, and has for its cause 
physical and moral influences ; some of the functions 
which are under the control of the ganglionic system 
are the action of the heart, digestion, peristalsis, and 
regulation of animal heat. In one leading a natural 
and healthy life, in the country for example, all these 
are likely to be normally performed ; but if the same 
individual remove to a crowded city, lead the life of 
a student, exhaust his nerve power by late hours, 
bad air, and mental efforts, all of them rapidly become 
deranged. He suffers from palpitation of the heart, 
dyspepsia, coldness of the hands and feet, and con- 
stipation. This change usually occurs slowly, but 
sometimes it does so rapidly, as from a sea voyage, 
or any very violent mental strain. In a similar manner 
the processes of ovulation and menstruation are affect- 
ed by it, in some cases gradually, in others with great 
rapidity. 

There are other physiological causes that may sim- 
ulate this disease, such as pregnancy, the meno- 
panse or change of life, and tardy menstruation, 
and should be looked for at first, as in the first we 
have the various symptoms peculiar to that delicate 
condition, and in which case it would be very serious 
to interfere in any way ; in the second, it should only 
occur between the ages of forty or fifty, though in 
rare cases it has occurred as early as the twenty-first 



Marriage. 91 

year, and as late as sixty or seventy, and may be 
diagnosed by the absence of sensations of discomfort 
at the periods when the menses should occur. And 
in the third or tardy menstruation it must be re- 
membered that it may not come on until seventeen 
or eighteen, and mothers should not be worried on 
that account, but wait until nature takes her own 
time to effect a cure, and commence this normal, 
healthy function. 

The symptoms and effects of suppression or non- 
appearance are numerous and often serious, and may 
be either local or general. Among the local symp- 
toms are pains and dragging feelings in the loins and 
groins with a sensation of weight in the pelvis and 
great weakness in the limbs. Sometimes there is in- 
flammation of the external parts and a peculiar ex- 
citement which becomes excessively annoying or 
leads to vicious habits. The mind and feelings also 
suffer, so that the patient is dull, impatient, irritable, 
and melancholy, and so acutely sensitive that she can 
not stand the slightest disappointment or contradic- 
tion. When the suppression occurs suddenly, the 
female often feels many of these symptoms acutely, 
and some will suffer instantly from a dragging, bear- 
ing-down sensation, or from pain in the back, while 
others will be seized with headache and giddiness, or 
even faint away; others will be attacked with leucor- 
rhoea, diarrhoea, or inability to pass the urine, and 



92 Marriage. 

others again will be taken with chills and fever, and 
they will sometimes have very peculiar hemorrhages 
from other parts of the body — as the nose, ears, 
bowels, nipples, etc. This will occur with the same 
regularity as the normal flow, and is called vicarious 
menstruation. 

In commencing to treat amenorrhcea the greatest 
care and circumspection is required. It may be merely 
the consequence of some other disease, as in cases of 
disease of the stomach, heart, spine, and consumption, 
and also from a congenital condition, in which the 
closing of the natural passage by an imperforate hy- 
men, or closed vagina, is the cause, and in that case 
only requires opening, and lastly, if due to pregnancy, 
we must look carefully for that cause. 

In all cases we must make a careful study of the 
patient's constitution, habits, and mode of life, as in 
some cases it will only require attention to the 
general health, keep the mind and body in a good 
condition, surrounded by cheerful society, and to pre- 
vent all morbid melancholy and sentimental dreami- 
ness from reading trashy novels and all undue ex- 
citement. 

When all such means fail, we must resort to med- 
icines, and they will generally have the desired effect. 
I have always found the preparations of iron to be 
the best ; but the different circumstances of the case 
will render different preparations necessary, in which 



Marriage. 93 

it is best to consult a physician ; warm injections and 
baths may also be used when indicated. There are 
stronger remedies known, but are not mentioned here, 
because they should not be employed in any case 
unless with the advice of the medical adviser, as they 
might be used from mistaken notions or for criminal 
purposes. 

All other means failing, I have found galvanism, if 
resorted to in time and in a proper manner, will al- 
most supersede everything else in this disease. I 
have employed it in many hundred cases of amenor- 
rhoea, and with such uniform success, that I look upon 
it as nearly certain. In many instances a single ap- 
plication will be sufficient, and in every case, if the 
simplest means should fail, I would advise galvanism 
before any stronger means are resorted to or powerful 
medicines given. The manner of application varies 
in different cases, as the poles may be applied exter- 
nally — one to the spine and the other on the abdo- 
men — or one may be applied internally in various 
ways not necessary to mention here. Neither pain 
nor serious inconvenience attends its use, nor can any 
injurious consequences follow, even if it does no good. 
A person of experience, by daily weighing all the cir- 
cumstances of the case, will seldom be at a loss what 
course to advise, by which they may have a return to 
health and their desires gratified. 

The state of mind and feelings also have immense 



94 Marriage. 

influence on this most important function of the fe- 
male, also those cases which arise from the natural 
passages being closed. We must first make a positive 
diagnosis by examination, and they can generally be 
easily and perfectly relieved. 

From this and the preceding chapters my readers 
will readily see how necessary it is that not only t be 
husband, but the wife, should be in a perfect state of 
health and vigor, that they may bring forth perfect 
offspring. And to those who have fallen victims to any 
secret disease, and who, fearful that any should know 
their troubles, undertake to cure themselves — and 
when they have nearly ruined their bodily health, 
and perhaps seriously injured that of their " life's com- 
panion/* they will betake themselves to a proper 
medical adviser, perhaps only to be convinced that 
had they applied for assistance in time, their consti- 
tutions would have been saved from all the ravages 
of the many diseases that affect these parts. 

No man should dare to enter on the married state 
when his organs of generation are incomplete or in- 
competent to meet all the requirements of that happy 
state. No disorder acts so much and so frequently 
against the completion of the marriage tie as the va- 
rious complications arising from self-abuse during the 
years of early manhood, and I can not urge my read- 
ers too strongly to attend to these matters before 
they have full possession of the mind and body. 



Marriage. 95 

Nor should men imagine that because the mind 
and disposition of a young wife may be modest 
and gentle, that they would rest quiet under the 
knowledge of the fact that her husband can not fulfill 
all his marital engagements, that though they may 
be as pure and unsullied as the driven snow in the 
matter of sexuality, still nature will assert herself, 
and teach them the secret w r hich marriage is supposed 
to divulge. She will not bear the pangs of constant 
and recurring disappointments without knowing and 
reflecting on him who is the cause of it all. I may 
also turn to woman in all her loveliness, and warn her 
how necessary and binding it is that she should keep 
herself free and pure, to be always "the one and 
only one " to her husband, and to be so, the first and 
greatest object is her bodily health. 

And to both sexes — be there many secret troubles 
in that inner life so dear to us all, of any nature what- 
ever — I would say, do not put off the day when you 
will seek and find the proper relief, that you may be 
speedily restored to health, and confidently rely on 
the utmost secrecy in my judgment and treatment 
of all these most distressing affections. And let me 
caution them not to take the chance of rendering 
themselves unhappy for life, and their future offspring 
diseased and perhaps deformed, from the neglect to 
remedy those many ills that " flesh is heir to " from 
imprudent habits, and from over-indulgence in that 



96 Marriage. 

most blessed function with which our bodies have 
been endowed. They should endeavor at the earliest 
moment, if they have been unfortunate in their early 
youth, to seek the proper relief, that they may enjoy 
all the delights of a perfect life. Nature is absolute 
in all her laws, and will not be disregarded and dis- 
obeyed without inflicting a just and due punishment 
upon the offender, and which can only be remedied 
by the strictest attention to all the rules and advice 
of the medical attendant. So the surgeon should be 
perfectly familiar with all the faults and excesses of 
his patients, that he may afford them the most per- 
fect relief and prompt restoration to health. 



CHAPTER VI. 

GONORRHCEA, WITH ITS RESULTS, SYMPTOMS, AND 
TREATMENT. 

Of the many diseases to which the genital organs 
are subject to, from man's natural desire to seek the 
relief of his passions, and by so doing finds relief from 
an impure connection, we find that urethritis, gon- 
orrhoea, or clap, is the most common and universal, 
and though the proper means for such relief may be 
both beneficial and satisfying, and whereby the mar- 
riage bed has so many pleasures and delights, the 
abuse of this natural function, in the paths of vice and 
prostitution, can be but unsatisfactory, and sooner or 
later resulting in some form of these peculiar diseases. 
It is to the sufferers from this folly that I would 
point out the causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and treat- 
ment, that they may be relieved thereby, and that 
they may seek such proper relief before their disease 
has brought on the many unhappy results that will 
surely follow, in the course of this disease, from 
neglect or improper treatment. And certain it is that 
these diseases do exist, whatever may be their origin, 
and that they are poisonous and contagious, though 
7 (97) 



98 Gonorrhoea. 

not epidemical. This poison, generated and trans- 
mitted by sexual contact, is of a peculiarly malignant 
and destructive nature. 

There are many theories in regard to the nature 
and susceptibility to the disease of different individu- 
als, as daily experience teaches us ; that one man 
may be infected and another escape, when having 
intercourse with a woman affected with virulent fluor 
albus or whites, and it is idle to indulge in any 
theories upon this question, nor do we know why it is, 
of all the various mucous membranes of the body, only 
that of the urethra, the female genitals, the eye, and 
perhaps the rectum, are susceptible of gonorrhoeal in- 
flammation, while all others are proof against it; and 
though the infecting secretion acts first on the mea- 
tus, the inflammation is apt to develop in the fossa 
just below, called the fossa navicularis ; nor can we tell 
why this venereal virus always produces a clap and 
not a chancre or chancroid ; but it does produce its 
specific effects in all cases of impure connection, and is 
transmitted from one sex to the other, and so exists 
in men and women, and in the former attacks the ure- 
thra and in the latter the vagina, urethra, clitoris, etc. 

In my classification and description of this disease, 
I will first speak of its period of incubation, or 
the time it generally appears after exposure to the 
infection : this is about from three to eight days, 
though there have been cases noted in which it oc- 



Gonorrhoea. 99 

curred as early as twenty-four hours, or as late as two 
or three weeks afterward, but these are very rare ex- 
ceptions. Credulous persons will hit upon cases 
where the period of incubation has lasted longer still. 
Every physician that has attended cases of venereal 
diseases, especially with those of the better classes ot 
society, will have found out that it is much easier for 
a patient to confess to excesses perpetrated six or 
eight weeks ago, than to those he has been guilty of 
recently, and they will antedate their venereal con- 
tact ; and so seemingly make the period of incubation 
much longer; this is the commencement of a most 
painful and troublesome disorder, which is rendered 
by frequent occurrence one of the greatest social evils 
of the present day. 

If we make a section of the urethra during the 
period, of active inflammation, we find the mucous 
membrane that lines this tube, reddened, injected, 
swollen, and coated with a puriform secretion, and at 
first only involving the anterior portions of the ure- 
thra, thus showing how important it is that these 
cases should be seen at the earliest moment, that they 
may have skillful and proper treatment before they 
have extended backwards to the membranous and 
prostatic portions, and making it so much more 
serious in its results, and difficult to cure ; this 
inflammation of the mucous membrane may extend 
and be accompanied by inflammation and infiltration 



ioo Gonorrhoea. 

of the corpora cavernosa, or may extend and abscesses 
or suppuration of the prostate occur ; we may also 
have the inflammation extending through the lym- 
phatics of the parts to the glands, in the inguinal 
regions with swelling, though seldom suppuration. 
The most common complications of gonorrhoea are an 
inflammation of the epididymis (see remarks on anat- 
omy) and catarrh of the bladder, which will generally 
show themselves about the end of the first or second 
week, at the time the " par prostatica " becomes in- 
volved in the inflammation and by which it extends 
to the neck of the bladder, or the mouth of the sem- 
inal ducts, and hence to the epididymis. 

In its symptoms and course we notice that at first 
there is an itching sensation at the orifice of the ure- 
thra, sometimes extending over the whole gland, and 
a tingling sensation is felt, but so slight as only to 
provoke frequent erections and desire for sexual inter- 
course ; and at the same time the lips of the meatus 
are found reddened and swollen, and are usually ag- 
glutinated by the dried secretion. A frequent desire 
to urinate sets in and the patients have nocturnal 
emissions, and during the day frequent erections, 
that may lead them to further excesses. The secre- 
tion increases with thickening and swelling of the mu- 
cous membrane, causing a narrowness of the canal, 
and perhaps partial retention of the urine, and as the 
inflammation extends, this itching gives place to a 



Gonorrhoea. 101 

burning pain in the urethra, extending from the mea- 
tus to the fossa navicularis ; as this pain increases it is 
extremely severe, during the act of urination, which 
becomes more and more frequent, so that with each 
effort only a few drops are voided, and with the ut- 
most suffering; the secretion formerly scanty, tena- 
cious, and transparent, gradually becomes more co- 
pious, thicker, and purulent, and making yellow stiff 
stains on the linen. The lips of the meatus are red 
and swollen, and the entire penis also, especially the 
glands, seem involved in the process of inflammation, 
with tenderness along the entire course of the urethra. 
Now the prepuce or foreskin, irritated by the dis- 
charge or else owing to propagation of the inflamma- 
tion, often becomes excoriated and cedematous or 
swollen, so that the product of a balanitis or inflam- 
mation of the glands is added to the secretion from 
the urethra ; and if the outlet of the prepuce is small, a 
phimosis is apt to occur, or, should the patient retract 
the foreskin and from swelling can not return it, will 
then cause paraphimosis. At this stage, erections 
occur very frequently, more so than at the start of the 
disease, and cause the most intense pain and agony, 
from the stretching and expansion that occur in the 
organs and that will deprive him of sleep at night, and 
to resort to any expedient that he may have relief. 
With some the inflammation is not so intense, but 
merely a slight running, with some heat and soreness. 



102 Gonorrhoea. 

This is the case in those of a cold and insusceptible 
constitution ; others are very severely affected, and as 
the inflammation runs high and the erections are fre- 
quent, it causes Chordee, due to the altered length of 
the organ, and to which the urethra is obliged to ac- 
commodate, so bends and curves the organ down- 
ward, causing the most intense agony, though this 
can always be relieved in a short time by cold appli- 
cations. Should the bladder become affected, the 
patient suffers from a constant desire to urinate, and 
can with difficulty restrain it ; at the same time he 
will have violent pains in the bladder and glands. 

There is another complication I frequently see : 
After the disease has been imprudently treated or 
neglected, and as the discharge may get much less, 
and, perhaps, cease altogether, we have the inflamma- 
tion extending along the vas-deferens to the testicles, 
and so causing the disease commonly known as 
swelled testicles, or orchitis. Patients suppose this to 
be due, in many cases, to the frequent and incau- 
tious use of the injections now in vogue, and is 
shown, first, by a softness and then pain in the cord, 
testicles, etc., not very severe, and seeming more like 
a sense of weight in the testicle. Soon, however, the 
pain augments, and the epididymis, which is the chief 
seat of the inflammation, becomes very sensitive to 
the touch, or the testicle becoming involved, an effu- 
sion occurs into the tunica propria testis, so that in a 



Gonorrhoea. 103 

few days the testicles become as large as a goose-egg 
or fist, and even larger, and is now less movable than 
before ; due to the thickened condition of the sper- 
matic cord ; and the greater the swelling, so much 
greater is the pain, and tenderness upon pressure. 
If the constitution be irritable, or if the patient in- 
dulge in his usual regimen and exercises during the 
first stages of his gonorrhoea, this distressing com- 
plaint may be expected. And it is the most painful 
and dangerous of the complications of this disease. 
So the patient that tampers with himself, expecting 
its cure, is exposed to much suffering, and a train of 
evil of which he had no conception. Another con- 
sequence of this disease, and generally resulting from 
the balanitis it sets up, are the common venereal warts, 
that may cover the mucous membrane of the glans 
and prepuce, or invade the urethra itself. They some- 
times grow to an immense size, have the appearance 
of cancerous penis, and will sometimes perforate the 
foreskin, if phimosis be present. The only proper 
treatment for them is removal, by excision with the 
knife or cautery, and with the proper applications to 
the base of these warty growths. These warts are 
very contagious, and should be treated very carefully. 
We have also a peculiar complication called gonor- 
rhoea! rheumatism, coming on at the end of a clap ; it 
may attack one or more joints, particularly the knee, 



104 Gonorrhoea. 

with severe pain and tenderness, and attended with 
effusion in the joint and constitutional disturbance. 

I will now speak of the more remote results of a 
gonorrhoea or clap, that may show themselves, some- 
times after all the inflammatory symptoms have sub- 
sided, and the discharge stopped ; and these results 
are gleet and stricture, two very common diseases, so 
often met with by the physician who has a large 
practice in these special diseases. 

Generally, after a week or so in the treatment of a 
clap, if the proper remedies are not used, there re- 
mains a stationary, scanty, mucous discharge, which 
may last for months or years. During the day, if the 
intervals between the acts of micturation or emptying 
the bladder, be long, this secretion glues the lips of 
the urethra together, and when the patient awakens 
in the morning a tolerably large drop of it has col- 
lected, and runs out between the lips of the meatus 
as soon as they are separated. The stiff stains upon 
the linen are now of a grayish color, although there is 
a small, but distinct, yellow spot in the middle. This 
discharge is called " gleet " or " goutte militaire, ,, and 
may increase and become purulent if the patient ex- 
poses himself again to an exciting cause, and the 
most frequent are excess in wine, or sexual inter- 
course, as well as exposure to cold, and over-exertion. 
In the treatment of this persisting complication, we 
find it is very frequently due to an organic stricture 



Gonorrhoea. 105 

in some portions of the canal, and will both require 
the same methods of treatment. I will, therefore, 
to the readers of this book, that is not intended 
for medical men, point out the way of relief to 
the sufferer, that he may see and know a correct 
opinion of his bodily infirmity, and thereby at once 
seek the proper means of relief, before it is too 
late, and all these obstinate complications have set 
in. A few words of advice in regard to the symptoms 
and diagnosis of this stage of the disease, organic 
stricture, that may creep on after marriage and pro- 
duce many serious effects, as the person afflicted in 
this way is not in a proper condition to effect a pro- 
ductive intercourse with his partner, on account of 
the impediment to the proper ejaculation of the 
semen. I have had many consultations on this sub- 
ject, when, by proper treatment, they have been re- 
lieved of their difficulty, and the progenitors of very 
happy families, from the removal of their incapacity. 
We find that organic stricture is " caused by a con- 
traction of inflammatory deposit, situated upon, 
within, or beneath the mucous membrane of the 
canal," and this contraction and reduction of the 
normal passage of the urethra is of a chronic nature, 
and in nearly all cases can be traced to some chronic 
inflammation, as a persistent gleet. And this in- 
flammatory deposit will go on so slowly and gradual- 
ly that the patient is totally unaware of his ap- 



106 Gonorrhoea, 

proaching trouble and danger, unless he should seek 
competent advice, or his attention is drawn to the 
fact by a spasm of the urethra, or a sudden attack 
of retention of urine, caused by some irregularity or 
exposure to cold. 

This obstruction may be simply a perforated mem- 
branous diaphragm, across the canal, or a narrow 
band of inflammatory product, deposited and sur- 
rounding the passage, and called whipcord, ring, or 
annular stricture, and may be general or only partial 
from some adhesion of the natural rugae of the ure- 
thra, or some folds of its mucous lining. And these 
strictures may increase in their extent, from band- 
like to the width of one or two inches, or in some 
very severe cases throughout the entire course of the 
canal ; or the urethra may present several independ- 
ent strictures, making the diagnosis particularly diffi- 
cult. I have seen cases in which there were eight to 
twelve, and extending from the meatus to the neck 
of the bladder, and in that way result in obliteration 
of the urethra, with a urinary fistula, affording a com- 
pensatory outlet for the urine. 

In regard to the most common locality of stricture, 
we are indebted to Sir H. Thompson, for his many 
pathological specimens, showing that the usual seat 
of stricture, in by far the majority of cases, is situ- 
ated at the juncture of the spongy and membranous 
portions of the urethra, and that it will be found 



Gonorrhoea. 107 

next about one inch in front of the above, and be- 
coming less frequent as we approach the meatus. 

As I have observed, the symptoms of this most 
distressing and sometimes obstinate affection, are 
very slow and insidious, and, perhaps, not noticed un- 
til there has been retention of urine ; perhaps due to 
some indiscretion in diet, excess in drinking, or ex- 
posure to cold ; these are the immediate cause of the 
retention ; and then, perhaps, for the first time, the 
patient recollects the fact that other and less marked 
symptoms had existed for a long time previously. 
Perhaps some chronic gleet has existed for a long 
time, or some urethral pain during the act of mictura- 
tion, and that the stream of urine was divided or 
twisted, or the act of urination was prolonged, with, 
perhaps, a slight irritability of the bladder. These 
many symptoms have failed by themselves to attract 
the patient's attention, or make any impression upon 
his mind, that would lead him to suspect that he was 
subject to organic stricture, and that the retention 
was caused, in a diseased urethra, by the spas- 
modic action of the urethral muscles at the seat of 
the stricture, and if it is not discovered by the 
sudden retention of urine, it will show itself by the 
gradual diminution of the stream of urine, until it 
will only pass out drop by drop, causing the bladder 
to become very irritable, so that the patient will have 
to rise several times during the night, with pain on 



io8 Gonorrhoea. 

micturation, and with tenesmus, and causing pro- 
lapsus recti and piles. 

Such being the results, in their many forms, of the 
simple gonorrhoea, and as the patients differ so in 
their constitution and peculiarities, it is impossi- 
ble to lay down any positive or distinct rules in the 
treatment of this disease, particularly as there may 
be so many different complications arising, that would 
alter the mode of treatment very materially. I 
would, therefore, advise all those who may be afflicted 
with this troublesome and dangerous disease, that 
they do not delay nor tamper with themselves, by 
trying the various nostrums for sale in the shops at 
the present day ; but that they should abide by the 
advice and judgment of the physician, who will give 
each particular case his best thought and study, that 
he may be perfectly restored, no matter how far the 
destructive process may have proceeded, as we have 
had patients reduced to a deplorable state, by " lues 
venera," from the inexperience or ignorance of prac- 
titioners ; and our utmost skill has been required to 
relieve the ill-effect of his past neglect and unscien- 
tific treatment. 

There are other matters that must influence the 
treatment, and control the final result ; for instance, 
a man may be engaged to marry in a few days, 
when he suddenly discovers that he is suffering 



Gonorrhoea, 109 

from gonorrhoea ; and he must be cured in a few days, 
as the marriage can not be postponed ; and in just such 
cases the skill of the physician is imperatively de- 
manded, nor will the general practitioner try to arrest 
the gonorrhceal discharge by the ectrotic or imme- 
diate treatment, as there is much risk; but in numer- 
ous cases it becomes necessary, and if judiciously 
used, it may be employed with safety, but involves 
great trouble and attention, and an explicit and ex- 
act obedience on the part of the patient ; and from 
these reasons all cases that present for the ectrotic 
treatment will be carefully examined, and if there is 
any risk, I will candidly tell them so, and give them 
my best advice. Before concluding this chapter on 
this common and disgusting disease, I can not help 
warning each unfortunate of the great danger and 
contagiousness of the matter discharged from the 
urethra, as, should the smallest portion of this dis- 
charge be applied to the eye incautiously, by apply- 
ing the towel or the finger to the eyes when washing, 
the slightest particle of that virulent poison will be 
sufficient of itself to inflame that delicate organ to a 
serious degree. This is called gonorrhceal ophthalmia 
or gonorrhceal inflammation of the eye, and if the 
proper treatment be neglected for any time, it will re- 
sult in the complete loss of sight, and, perhaps, de- 
stroy the organ, with a liability to communicate with 



no Gonorrhoea, 

the other eye. As this matter is so important, I must 
again warn all patients to be very careful in the use 
of all towels, etc., and to consult a physician at once, 
should there be the slightest sign of this terrible com- 
plication. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ON SYPHILIS : ITS SYMPTOMS AND RESULTS, WITH THE 
EVIL EFFECTS OF MERCURIAL PREPARATIONS. 

If I may quote the words of a distinguished author 
and authority on this disease — he says : " Syphilis is 
a constitutional disease, the result of a specific an- 
imal poison, introduced from without," and in 
which he has reference to the true syphilitic poison, 
producing its own peculiar venereal sore ; but we find 
that there are two varieties of this disease, in which 
we have first, the chancroid, or, the non-infecting 
sore, and the true chancre ; and hence arises the diffi- 
culty in all syphilitic affections, to discover whether 
absorption has taken place, and to what extent the 
constitution may be infected ; as, if the virus has 
not been absorbed, the disease may be treated with 
ease and terminate in a speedy and effective cure ; 
but when absorption has occurred, after illicit con- 
nection, then there is excessive danger to the parts, 
with constitutional disturbance; it is for these rea- 
sons that I would point out to my many readers, some 
of whom may at some time have been affected with 

(in) 



112 On Syphilis, 

this virus, the advisability of an early consultation, 
that they may truly know the extent of their pre- 
vious infection, though at the present moment all 
the external signs of the disease may have passed 
away ; or, if in the first or primary stages, they may 
know the exact results, and that we must not only 
remove all the external manifestations, but must ex- 
amine all the recesses of the system, and root out the 
poison that may exist in all the " avenues of the 
blood ;" and unless I can do this, and positively too, 
we can only afford transient relief, from which the 
patient may suffer from a speedy relapse, and be 
liable to contaminate some sweet and lovely being. 

How, then, it may be asked, is syphilis to be rec- 
ognized ? Is it to be recognized by its primary in- 
oculation, or is it only to be known by its constitu- 
tional effects afterward ? It has been already stated 
by some authorities that there is no form of local 
sore, chancre, or inoculation that can with certainty 
be that of syphilis, but we find that in the cartilag- 
inous indurated sore, with enlarged glands, there 
is every probability of the syphilis showing itself by 
constitutional manifestations, while in the multiple, 
suppurating, non-indurated chancroid, we will have no 
such symptoms. 

These two distinctive diseases are most commonly 
developed on the body, by means of the local sores 
of a female, producing inoculation, and consequently 



On Syphilis. 113 

similar sores affecting the genital organs, and accord- 
ing to their nature and properties of infecting the 
general system, are called chancres, or chancroids, 
and we shall therefore endeavor to present these two 
forms to our readers, although the distinctive features 
are not so distinct that the unpracticed eye would be 
able to tell them, and making it necessary to have a 
proper diagnosis with treatment in each case — hence 
in that of chancroids, or the simple local venereal 
sore; we find them the result of venereal contact, and 
generally found on the penis of the male, or genitals 
of the female, but these may occur on other parts of 
the body ; in fact, wherever the secretion from a sore 
may be applied to another surface. They generally, 
when on the foreskin or glands of the penis, have a 
red or angry appearance, and spread rapidly, and if 
allowed to remain neglected, frequently eat into the 
male organ, and may cause its complete destruction. 
In this soft, suppurating sore, we find them often 
multiple, with an excoriated surface, and neatly 
shaped and cut edges, as if it was punched out. It 
has an irregular and w r orm-eaten surface, and with large 
amounts of pus or matter coming from it, with a 
tendency to spread rapidly ; the base of the sore will 
be soft, and in nearly all cases is complicated with 
a suppurating bubo. 

It is uncertain at what time these sores will appear 
after infection, as it has been found to vary very 
8 



H4 On Syphilis. 

much, from two or four hours to two weeks ; but the 
usual time is about ten days, and the action of the 
sore varies with the condition of the patient ; as in 
some cases of a debilitated constitution they show a 
tendency to spread very fast, and in other cases are 
very irritable and inflamed. 

In our clinical experience of these cases, we find 
that the first symptom is an irritation or itching of 
the part, and this if it occurs on the glans is succeeded 
by an inflamed pimple, small and watery ; and which 
when bursting displays a rapidly enlarging elevated 
sore, hollow in the center and excessively painful and 
sensitive, making it very painful to retract the fore- 
skin, particularly when from contact these sores 
soon appear on the inside, and when on the fraenum, 
this part is frequently destroyed. All the mucous 
membranes of the body, particularly those of the 
mouth and nose, are very liable to be affected, and 
may from sympathy extend to the mucous mem- 
brane of the urethra, and cause what is called venereal 
gonorrhoea. These sores also become phagedenic, or 
sloughing, in which they are very destructive, leaving 
a deep and unhealthy -looking surface very difficult 
to cure. 

I will now turn to that most formidable of all the 
venereal diseases — the true chancre, the virus from 
which at once affects the general system ; and has 
the peculiar power of affecting the unborn foetus and 



On Syphilis. 115 

the newly -born child in a direct way from the 
parents. No other blood poisons possess this power, 
and making it so necessary to have a correct diagno- 
sis. The poison once introduced into the system, 
manifests its presence in its own peculiar way, by the 
appearance of a somewhat irregular although char- 
acteristic chain of symptoms. They are local and 
general and run their course, yet do not eliminate the 
poison, as they may disappear for a time to reappear 
in some other form, and may lie dormant for years 
till some weakening influence has depressed the 
powers of the patient, and thus given rise to some 
local affection, to which the practiced eye will read 
with more or less certainty the influence of some 
passed affection of syphilis. The poison has been 
stopped, but not killed, and in the weakness of the 
possessor, reasserts its power. 

No other animal poisons appear to have such te- 
nacity of existence. They produce their specific 
effects in a definite way, and in a regular series of 
symptoms, and are either eliminated or destroy life ; 
having made their mark and run their course, they 
cease to act, and are innocuous, their power for harm 
being exhausted. The poison of syphilis, however, 
is so subtle that it is tolerably certain most of the 
secretions of a syphilitic subject are capable of pro- 
ducing the same disease in another. 

In regard to the origin of syphilis, we find it is al- 



Il6 On Syphilis. 

ways contracted through inoculation, from a local 
chancre or sore, the inoculation of some discharge 
from a syphilitic mucous tubercle, condyloma, or 
other sore, or even from the secretions of a syphilitic 
subject ; the secretions from any specific sore being 
capable of producing in another a chancre of any form. 

After inoculation a certain time usually elapses b3- 
fore the poison manifests its presence, the period vary- 
ing from six weeks to three months. In exceptional 
cases the secondary symptoms of syphilis may appear 
within the month, or fail to appear for four or five 
months ; but every week that passes after the third 
without any manifestations lessens the prospect of 
their appearance, and if they do not appear within 
six months, there is very little probability of their 
doing so at all, and the disease has " been nipped in 
the bud." 

The venereal diseases become constitutional by the 
absorption and transmission of poisonous virus: first 
perhaps through the primary ulcer to the groin, and 
afterward spreading itself throughout the entire sys- 
tem of blood-vessels. The circulating fluid being 
once contaminated, the various solid structures of the 
body become gradually affected and poisoned. As 
this venereal taint passes through the blood it shows 
itself by its peculiar symptoms and primarily or first 
on the skin in the form of an eruption, or upon the 
mucous membrane of the alimentary canal, as indi- 



On Syphilis. 117 

cated by sore throat, with some amount of fever and 
constitutional disturbance that usually precedes their 
appearance ; this skin eruption may be only a rose- 
rash, roseala y giving rise to a mottling of the skin or 
a more lasting staining, and may assume the papular 
form, lichen, or the various primary forms by which 
skin diseases usually show themselves. These erup- 
tions may last for a few days and disappear or leave 
a dusky, coppery stain behind of some durability. 
All these eruptions have a copper tint, more par- 
ticularly after they have faded from their first ap- 
pearance, no matter what peculiar form of skin 
eruption they may assume at first. 

As the outside skin is attacked by eruptions (sim- 
ple and ulcerative) in syphilitic subjects, so the inside 
skin or mucous membranes are equally involved. 
" Every form of syphilitic affection of the skin," 
writes Lee, " has its counterpart in the mucous mem- 
brane ; but the appearances will be modified by the 
comparative thinness of the structure, by the absence 
of cuticle, and by the little disposition that these 
parts have to take on adhesive inflammation. " The 
mucous tubercle is the most common form as found 
on the organs of generation, tongue, mouth, lips, 
nose, throat, rectum, and anus, and occasionally in 
other parts of the alimentary canal ; and these tuber- 
cles may break down and ulcerate, leaving deep ex- 
cavated sores. 



n8 On Syphilis. 

Bubos in the groin constitute one of the first symp- 
toms, from extension of the inflammation, though 
they may be absent ; then follow pains in the head, 
the joints of the shoulders, arms, and ankles, and 
these symptoms may gradually increase, especially 
the pain, which becomes so intense that the patient 
is unable to lie in his bed. Nodes arise on the skull, 
shin-bones, and bones of the arms, which, being at- 
tended with constant pain and inflammation, at length 
grow carious and putrid. This form of the disease is 
called syphilitic periostitis, and is due to a gummy 
effusion beneath the periosteum or membrane cover- 
ing the bones, and eventually attacks the bones be- 
neath, and in which the pain is of a constant aching 
character, and is always aggravated at night ; and, in 
those cases in which the bones of the skull may be 
affected, it may extend to the dura-mater and brain. 
" The internal organs may be affected equally with 
the external — not only the cranium, but the brain 
within it or the nerves ; not only the muscles of the 
limbs and tongue, but the heart ; not only the phar- 
ynx, but the sesophagus ; not only the larynx, but 
the trachea, bronchi, and lungs, also the liver, spleen, 
and other viscera/' 

Malignant ulcers now seize different parts of the 
body, but generally begin with the throat, and thence 
gradually extend to the palate and the cartilage of 
the nose, which they may destroy ; and the nose, be- 



On Syphilis. 119 

ing destitute of its natural support, falls in, and pre- 
sents a flattened appearance externally. The hair 
and scalp also become affected, and the hair falls off 
from the head and also other parts of the body where 
it may grow. The nails become unequal, thick, 
wrinkled, and rough ; and ulcers may arise and cause 
them to fall off. 

The inside of the mouth, throat, and nose becomes 
painful, hot, and inflamed with ulceration ; and pus- 
tules appear in the roof of the mouth, which become 
round, malignant ulcers that may rot the bone as 
far as the nostrils ; and this disease, when it exists in 
the throat, presents a white, slimy-looking ulceration, 
with a most offensive discharge and fetid breath ; the 
soft palate may be completely ulcerated away or de- 
tached in portions, and the upper and back parts of 
the throat present one vast ulcerating cavity covered 
with adhesive matter, and the voice becomes af- 
fected — sounding hoarse, thick, and low; while swal- 
lowing becomes very painful and difficult. 

As we progress in the symptoms and appearance 
of this loathsome disease, we find that it leaves the 
face very much disfigured, the cavity of the nostrils 
exposed from the throat, the natural prominence of 
the face destroyed, and a disgusting ulceration takes 
their place. From these ravages the disease may ex- 
tend to the bones, attacking first their lining mem- 
brane with hard or soft exostoses, and sometimes 



120 On Syphilis. 

with or without pain ; and, when it attacks the bone, 
we have caries, which increasing, the bones become 
brittle and break upon the least effort, or their con- 
stituent parts maybe so dissolved that they will bend 
like wax. 

The long round bones, as those of the legs, are 
generally the first that suffer ; hence, those enlarge- 
ments on the shins — the well-known venereal nodes 
— which are in reality inflammatory enlargements 
and thickening of the periosteum, which covers them, 
with deposits of gummy material, and may pass on to 
bony-disorganization. 

As these symptoms come on, perhaps a long time 
after the chancre has healed and all other symptoms 
disappear, the patient complains in the evening of 
each day of increasing pains and aching in the legs 
or in some particular place on them. There is not 
much swelling at first, and the pain and swelling gen- 
erally disappear toward morning. Great sensibility 
of pain occurs at evening again, and the sleep and 
rest are broken from the recurring irritation and 
fever. 

So does this disease attack the many organs of the 
human frame, and we also find that it will affect the 
organs of sense also ; as it will frequently in its after 
effects show itself by affecting the eyes and ears, and 
in which we find them affected with a variety of 
symptoms. As in the eyes, they are affected with 



On Syphilis. 121 

pains {orbital), with redness and continued itching 
externally ; and internally we have the various forms 
of inflammation of the tunics of the eye, in which 
the sight becomes cloudy and is eventually de- 
stroyed, and perhaps suppuration may set in with 
destruction of the ball of the eye. The most com- 
mon forms of syphilitic disease of the ears are those 
of affections of the auditory nerve that conveys the 
sound to the brain through that delicate " organ of 
Corti," and we may have ulceration and caries of 
the internal and middle ear, with all its train of 
symptoms, as singing noise, roaring, deafness, and 
pain. 

Having so far given my readers some idea of this 
destructive disease, with all its various train of symp- 
toms, cause, and effects, that I may point out to them 
the necessity of prompt and immediate consultation, 
for the success and rapidity of effecting a cure in all 
cases depends on my seeing the cases at their early 
start that they may be stopped at once. At the 
same time I would wish to give them an intelligent 
account of the various modes of treatment, and also 
a few words about the use of mercurial preparations. 

There is no remedy in the pharmacopoeia that can 
be looked upon as a specific for syphilis, although 
there are many that will have a very beneficial influence 
in causing the disappearance of the symptoms ; when 
correctly combined they will exert great influence in 



122 On Syphilis. 

eradicating this disease, and when the system is 
brought fully under their powerful influence, this 
poison, so subtle and penetrating in its nature, must 
give way to the patient's perfect restoration to health. 
Now the treatment varies very much both internally 
and externally, according to the peculiar stage to 
which the disease has advanced and according to 
the type or peculiarity of the ulcers. As I wrote 
in the opening of this chapter, we have the two 
distinct and pathological varieties, both varying so 
very much in all their details and treatment and in 
both forms, the great and only important point to 
be kept in view is to abridge the duration of this dis- 
ease, so that it will not make any serious inroads on 
the constitution beyond the repair of the skillful 
physician. 

The first steps and the simplest mode of treatment 
is the extirpation and cure of the primary sore or 
chancre, no matter what its variety ; and this may be 
easily and readily effected by either the caustic or in- 
cision — that is, cutting out the diseased parts — the 
former being a very safe method and not very pain- 
ful, and one I highly recommend and practice ; but 
at the same time it may be impracticable from the 
surrounding parts becoming contaminated in conse- 
quence of the difficulty of entirely removing the dis- 
eased places, making it so necessary that we should 
combine with the local treatment such measures for 



On Syphilis. 123 

cure in the earliest stages of the disease, that we may 
prevent the contamination of the system, and pre- 
serve the constitution from this most pernicious 
disease. 

In olden times and up to the present day the chief 
reliance of the physician in the treatment of this dis- 
ease was mercury, and it was given in all its many 
chemical varieties ; but it is truly a two-edged sword, 
by which, although curing the disease, it may leave the 
patient in a much worse condition than before ; for we 
are told by the advocates of the use of this medicine 
that " should the salivation be attended with a cardi- 
algia or violent pains and torture at the stomach, per- 
petual and incessant retchings, and cold sweats, there 
is great danger to be apprehended." 

Many forms of venereal sores are rendered irritable 
and evidently disposed to slough and mortify under 
the action of mercury, and there are many of the 
older practitioners who can recollect the period when 
mercury in the ordinary doses failed to act as a rem- 
edy, that it was the practice to increase the dose, 
supposing that a more complete course of salivation 
with saturation of the system could alone arrest the 
rapid course of this disease, due, perhaps, to the un- 
skillful use of these preparations. 

That its improper and incautious administration 
has been productive of horrible consequences can not 
for a moment be doubted, nor is there any subject in 



124 On Syphilis. 

the entire range of medical and surgical science that 
demands and requires a greater amount of practical 
skill and determination than to know to what extent, 
and just when, and under what peculiar circumstances 
this powerful medicine should be used for the relief 
of this most distressing and dangerous disease, as we 
find that so many, perhaps young and handsome, 
have become self-sacrifices to their own inexperience 
and incautious use of this mineral drug, which in the 
course of their disease has shown itself in unseemly 
blotches on their bodies and unpleasant eruptions of 
the face. 

One of the worst features of this most distressing 
and insidious disease, and its most important feature, 
is the almost certain liability of its transmission of 
the syphilitic poison from the parent to the child, 
and by which we find these little innocent beings 
with no fault of their own, ushered into this world 
with their systems contaminated and their bodies 
afflicted with some loathsome eruption inherited from 
their parents that they must carry with them through 
life. Truly the " sins of the father shall be visited 
upon the children of the third and fourth generations 
of men." Infants may be affected in many different 
ways ; the disease may originate in the foetus or be- 
fore birth, in consequence of the impurity of one or 
both parents, and if from the fathers contamination, 
it will affect the mother also. 



On Syphilis. 125 

Infection may happen when neither of the parents 
has at the time any venereal swelling or ulceration 
and perhaps many years after a cure has apparently 
been effected — we can not tell why, but these are 
well-attested facts shown by clinical experience. 
Hence we have premature labor coming all too 
soon — by an abortion or miscarriage, the offspring 
presenting a puny, feeble, emaciated, and wrinkled 
form — the eyes red and inflamed, the cry shrill, husky, 
and wailing; mattery discharges are emitted from 
the eyelids, copper-colored blotches disfigure the skin 
of the genitals and hips ; the nostrils are clogged, the 
nails come off — and, in fact, these little ones come 
into this world utterly unable to bear the trials of life 
and childhood, and soon sink out of sight in the silent 
grave — innocent and sinless victims to man's licen- 
tiousness. 

In thus dwelling on the evil consequences of sen- 
sual indulgence and of the ailments of our depraved 
habits, let me not be accused of wishing to administer 
in the least degree to the morbid feelings and the cu- 
riosity of the idle ; but I would endeavor, as far as 
this book and my abilities will allow, to show to 
all my readers and to those who may be in any way 
sufferers, that I offer them a guide to manly health, 
and to show them the many causes that may pervert 
it, as well as to warn off many from the rocky and 
tempestuous coast of self-indulgence and abuse. For 



126 On Syphilis. 

these reasons I have tried to point out to man what he 
may be and what he may look for will he only follow 
all the laws of life and health, and, on the other hand, 
to point out to the victim and the fallen one the ter- 
rible and truthful consequences of his sin sure to fol- 
low if he continues on in the path of self-indulgence, 
and to point out to him the beacon-light of safety, by 
which, with timely consultation, he may meet with 
honest sympathy, and I can promise a perfect restora- 
tion to health. As the physical grandeur of man is in a 
state of perfection when he possesses every bodily and 
mental function in its perfect and original strength. 
Every function is capable of increasing our constitu- 
tional happiness when it fulfills its legitimate design, 
and is natural when exercised to a certain extent ; 
but when we pass beyond the bounds of physiological 
indulgence and trample the laws of nature underfoot, 
then it becomes unnatural, and consequently disease 
sets in with its train of various symptoms. So it is 
with the gratification of our appetites in eating and 
drinking, and so must it be with the genital system 
when overtaxed in its most important and elaborate 
function. All indulgences are therefore hurtful, 
more or less, in proportion as they are pursued or re- 
strained. 

I have shown the dreadful effects of debasing this 
physical grandeur by the indulgence of self-pollution, 
and the effects of excessive indulgence in sexual in- 



On Syphilis. 127 

tercourse, both promiscuous and matrimonial — that 
the health will be seriously impaired, the body ex- 
hausted by this wasting cause, and that we must re- 
trace our steps, seek repair and health, that our 
progeny may be well worthy of him who gives them 
life and being. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SURGICAL DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 

I SHALL include in this chapter all the malforma- 
tions of these organs, be they congenital or the re- 
sult of some disease of the parts, and shall point out 
to my readers the distinctive features by which they 
may be known, that they may be encouraged to 
seek proper and skillful relief, as there are so many 
unfortunates that spend their lives suffering from day 
to day with constant worry and agony of mind from 
perhaps some slight deformity that could be almost 
instantly and painlessly relieved. How many men 
are there now, Willing and anxious to enter that hap- 
py state of wedded bliss, and yet dare not ask the all- 
important question from the fear that this secret 
trouble to them will prevent the consummation of 
the marital act ; so far they are correct, as these mal- 
formations do seriously interfere with the perfect and 
complete act of copulation by preventing the proper 
ejaculation of the semen. So they will pass their 
lives, when I feel sure a few words of honest advice 
in pointing out to them the source and nature of 
their trouble and explaining to them that they may 
(128) 



Surgical Diseases of the Generative Organs. 129 

rely upon skillful and intelligent treatment, and that 
their parts may be restored, so that they may enjoy 
and complete the marital act. 

Phimosis. — We find this the most frequent of all 
the genital malformations, and one that is most com- 
monly congenital ; or, in plainer words, this malforma- 
tion existed at the time of birth, or it may be the re- 
sult of disease, as caused by the excoriations, and 
oedema or swelling of the parts from the acrid and 
purulent discharges with which they are bathed in vio- 
lent cases of acute gonorrhoea, and so render the cure 
of the primary trouble much more difficult and com- 
plicated. Again, we see cases of phimosis that are 
caused from the irritation and inflammatory infiltra- 
tion of a chancre or chancroid existing beneath the 
prepuce or foreskin, thereby preventing the physician 
from making the proper and thorough application ; 
nor can he see the progress of the primary disease ; 
consequently, phimosis exists as an elongation and 
swelling of the foreskin with corresponding narrowness 
of the opening, thereby preventing its retraction over 
the corona or crown of the glans-penis, and so con- 
cealing any virulent and contagious disease that may 
exist underneath, as we find in the sloughing and 
fringing preputial chancres. 

In the treatment of this malformation it will de- 
pend in a great measure upon the extent of the 
elongation and swelling of the prepuce and the state 
9 



130 Surgical Diseases of the Generative Organs. 

of the parts underneath, as there are many cases that 
may be brought to a successful termination by sim- 
ple palliative means combined with proper hygienic 
treatment, or they may require some operative inter- 
ference that can only be attended to at the hands of 
a skillful surgeon, and so showing the necessity of a 
consultation, in which the patient may rely on the 
most conscientious advice and treatment, and feel 
sure of the relief of his deformity. 

We will next take that condition of the prepuce, 
which is the exact opposite to the one just explained, 
and which is called paraphimosis. This malforma- 
tion in its causes is very similar to phimosis, but in 
which the patient is suffering from a very tight fore- 
skin, and, having been retracted over the corona of 
the glans, can not be replaced, and so by its tense and 
contracted condition, together with the accompanying 
swelling of the glands and the parts beneath, causes 
a strangulation of the glands and the mucous lining 
of the parts, and, if not relieved, will cause ulcera- 
tion at the line of strangulation, and may extend to 
sloughing of the parts, particularly if combined with 
some venereal disease ; and, in the treatment, we 
must endeavor to reduce this abnormal condition 
first by simple palliative means, and, this failing, use 
proper operative interference. 

We can not impress too fully on the mind of the 
patient the advisability of at once seeking proper 



Surgical Diseases of the Generative Organs. 1 3 1 

medical aid, that these matters may be relieved and 
not pass on until they have produced almost irre- 
deemable damage, thereby rendering the patient mis- 
erable and unhappy for the rest of his life. 

I would also call attention to the complications 
spoken of due to malposition of the orifice of the 
urethra, called epispadias, and hypospadias, in the 
former of which the opening of the urethra exists on 
the dorsum or back of the penis ; and in the latter, 
or hypospadias, the opening of the urethra is situated 
underneath, and may be as far back as the scrotum, 
and by which the patient will readily see that the 
proper accomplishment of the marital act is simply 
impossible, and can only result in dissatisfaction 
to both the parties. Associated with these two 
malformations we may have loss of the penis from 
accidents, operations for disease, or congenital causes ; 
and I have seen instances in which it was not 
more than half an inch in length, and in all such 
cases there can be no connection, though they may 
be fathers, as the semen will impregnate if placed 
within the lips of the vagina. In these cases there 
is very little to be done by the surgeon ; nor should 
any man with such a malformation ever marry with- 
out the full consent of the female, she knowing the 
deformity and its possible consequences. 

There sometimes occurs a wrong direction of the 
penis, in which it is bent laterally or downward when 



132 Surgical Diseases of the Generative Organs. 

in a state of erection. The correction of this will 
depend altogether upon its cause ; as, if it depends 
upon contraction of the skin from any cause on 
that side, it can be relieved by a very simple opera- 
tion ; and, when from tumors or swelling of the veins, 
they can be relieved generally by some mechanical 
application. 

I had a case in which there was a large tumor 
on one side of the penis due to rupture of some of 
the veins on that side from long and continued erec- 
tions during a state of intoxication. It was very ma- 
terially relieved by cooling applications and a perfect- 
fitting mechanical appliance. In some cases the 
penis will be bent downward from the fraenum or 
cord that attaches the prepuce underneath, and will 
be so short or contracted as to draw down the glands, 
and so will prevent a perfect ejaculation of the se- 
men, and even prevent connection by causing too 
much bending or severe pain. In these cases it is 
only necessary to sever the cords and keep the parts 
asunder. 

In regard to the size of the penis — a subject I am 
often consulted about, as so many men think their 
organs too small — it is hard to " draw a line " as to 
the proper size of this organ, as it varies so in dif- 
ferent people. In some it never grows from child- 
hood, though all the other organs may be fully de- 
veloped ; as in the case of a man whose penis was 



Surgical Diseases of the Generative Organs. 133 

only two inches long, but his testicles were fully de- 
veloped and his powers and ejaculation perfect. In 
those cases in which the penis is not fully developed, 
and the organ (though small) is capable of perfect 
erection, both connection and impregnation may be 
effected ; still, some improvement may be desired, 
or more frequently erection either does not take 
place at all or so imperfectly that coition is impos- 
sible. The flow of semen is so imperfect and irregu- 
lar, that impregnation can seldom be effected, even 
artificially. 

Under such circumstances it is of the greatest im- 
portance to produce an increased development, so 
that both those functions may be performed. It may 
be a great pleasure to many unfortunates in this par- 
ticular to know that there are means, even under most 
unfavorable disadvantages, by which this malformation 
may be relieved and the organ developed to a proper 
size ; and such is the case particularly when this 
trouble is of congenital origin ; and to those also in 
which the organ has decreased from some disease, 
we can hold out to them the hand of hope, feeling 
sure we can offer them some relief. 

This has been a deep subject of study with me for 
many years past, and I have dwelt on this subject as 
I believe I have the means by which so many can be 
relieved. I have treated many cases with very good 
results — in some cases only by letter — as I can send 



134 Surgical Diseases of the Generative Organs. 

the proper appliances, with full directions, by express. 
I have received some very flattering letters from 
those who have been relieved by the use of these 
mechanical and manual appliances — the effects of 
which, under right direction, are of an unexpected 
and pleasing character. To understand their value 
and mode of application, one must remember all the 
anatomical relations and structures of the parts, as it 
will be remembered that in the phenomena of erec- 
tion the blood flows in and fills all those minute in- 
terspaces in the corporas cavernosa and spongiosum 
from the arterial supply ; and, should there be any 
fault in their construction or avenues of supply, the 
erection can not take place. We may have the same 
result from long-continued excesses in youth, in which 
the arteries seem to lose their power of forcing the 
blood within the cells, and so, from want of being 
filled, decrease in size and close up more or less, caus- 
ing the organ to shrink. We may have the same re- 
sult from continued suppression of the sexual act 
from non-use. 

Therefore we must endeavor in all our treatment, 
to open and develop these cells, causing the blood 
to flow into them freely, and so increase their 
size, and dispose them to fill spontaneously from 
natural excitement. It is necessary in all cases to 
use some stimulating lotion, as well as shampooing 
and rubbing th^ pir.s freely to assist the sluggish 



Surgical Diseases of the Generative Organs. 135 

circulation, and attract the blood to the parts ; at the 
same time the skillful application of the Congest cr 
will develop the organ to a size that the copulative 
act can be complete. This congester, though it is 
not used generally in self-treatment, I would advise 
all to be very careful in its use, for without proper di- 
rections and supervision, it may do great mischief, 
especially to those who are too anxious to force nat- 
ure on in her delicate work ; hence we may have a 
rupture of the cells on the penis itself, but the patient 
with proper guidance may do the shampooing and 
rubbing himself, though not as perfect as they should 
be done ; but in the application of the congester I 
would advise all to have that skillfully applied, as in 
some cases it is necessary to have them made to fit 
perfectly, or they will fail. In my notes of cases I will 
endeavor to illustrate several cases that have been 
under my care with the very flattering results I have 
gained thereby. 

In speaking of the diseases of gonorrhoea, or clap, 
and of syphilis, we mentioned a complication arising 
in these diseases, called adenopathy or bubo, due 
to an extension of the inflammation to the inguinal 
glands in the groin ; these glands are a part of the 
lymphatic system, and serve to convey with the 
lymphatics, the lymph that is collected from the 
different parts of the body to the venous system, that 
it may be again elaborated, and the effete matter 



136 Surgical Diseases of the Ge?terative Organs. 

thrown out. Now, from the intimate relation be- 
tween these glands and the various parts of the penis, 
as that organ is very richly supplied with lymphatics, 
the inflammation readily extends in the course of these 
vessels, and the result and amount of inflammation will 
depend on the cause, as should the infecting material 
not be virulent nor constitutional, as is the case of 
gonorrhoea, we would probably have sympathetic 
bubo, occurring generally in the upper part of the 
groin ; these are readily amenable to treatment, pro- 
vided they are not neglected, in which case they may 
suppurate or matter form, thus making them very diffi- 
cult to cure, so that I would advise simple fomenta- 
tion and then to put the case in the hands of a 
physician. 

Hydrocele, or a collection of fluid in close con- 
nection with the testicles or spermatic cord, in most 
cases is due to some inflammatory affection of the 
serous membranes covering these important organs, 
and in which we have thickening of the tunica vagi- 
nalis, with deposition of a serous fluid in these cen- 
ters, but sometimes due to congenital causes ; this is 
albuminous in its character, as all other serous effu- 
sions, and in inflammatory action is very much in- 
creased. In the symptoms of this common affection, 
we find that it appears as a painless swelling, and as 
an apparent enlargement of the testicle, with very 
slow and unequal growth and variable size, with a 



Surgical Diseases of the Generative Organs, 137 

smooth and uniform surface, and more or less tense 
and fluctuating feeling ; it is always movable in the 
scrotum, and as a rule can be demonstrated to be 
distinct from any abdominal connection ; with the 
testes clearly made out, at its posterior and upper 
portions, by the testicular pain on pressure, or by the 
absence of translucency at one spot, as the tumor 
will, as a rule, transmit light when its coverings have 
been stretched. In the treatment of this surgical 
affection, if of the congenital variety, is very simple, 
as only some simple lotion is needed, as the hydro- 
chlorate of ammonia with tonic medicine, by which 
we may expect an entire absorption of the encysted 
fluid ; acupuncture has also been recommended, but it 
will be necessary in nearly all cases, particularly in 
those of a chronic nature, that tapping should be at 
once proceeded with, in the hands of a skillful sur- 
geon. This will always be found a very successful pal- 
liative measure, as in course of time the sac will again 
fill up, and should the patient desire it, we may pro- 
ceed to the radical cure, by which the sac, after tap- 
ping, is injected with some irritating fluid, and hence 
setting up a process of adhesive inflammation, by 
which the sac is entirely closed, and thereby prevent- 
ing the accumulation of any more of this serous fluid. 
There are many other diseases and complications 
of the genito-urinary organs that will require surgical 
interference, such as those of the kidneys and the 



138 Surgical Diseases of the Generative Organs. 

bladder, but that in their course, symptoms, and 
treatment are too complicated for self-diagnosis, or 
to be explained in a work of this kind ; and I would 
therefore advise, that in all cases of suspected trouble 
of any of these important and useful organs in the 
human economy, that they should at once seek some 
proper and skillful advice. That I have treated many 
such cases, my note-book will well attest, and with 
an unvarying success that has been both flattering to 
myself and to the lasting and permanent relief of my 
patients, by which they have been again able to enjoy 
all the pleasure and delights that these organs are so 
well fitted for. 

As all these troubles of the genito-urinary tract 
do have their most positive influence on the mind 
and health, thus rendering the victim morose and un- 
happy, and seriously interfering with the proper se- 
cretion and elaboration of the seminal fluid, as of all 
the organic functions we find that of secretion is one 
of the most strongly and frequently influenced by 
the mind. The secretion of tears, of bile, of milk, of 
saliva, may all be powerfully excited by mental stim- 
uli, or lessened by promoting antagonistic secretions. 
This influence is felt in full force by the generative 
organs, " which," writes a distinguished author, " are 
strongly influenced by the condition of the mind. 
When it is frequently and strongly directed toward 
the object of passion, these secretions are increased 



Surgical Diseases of the Ge?ierative Organs. 139 

in amount to a degree which may cause them to be 
a very injurious drain on the powers of the system. 
On the other hand, the active employment of the 
mental and bodily powers on other objects has a 
tendency to render less active, or even check alto- 
gether, the processes by which they are elaborated." 

It will thus be seen that as all these various mal- 
formations, be they congenital or the results of some 
neglected or ill-treated disease, must have their in- 
fluence on the mind from the thoughts constantly 
dwelling upon these infirmities, and through the mind 
have an almost direct action upon the secretion of 
the seminal fluid ; and as this function remains in a 
perfect state of health, so will the nervous system 
continue to influence all the important functions of 
the body. 

In my treatment and care of all these peculiar 
diseases, I have made it a rule to do no more than is 
absolutely necessary for the speedy relief and prompt 
and safe cure of their existing trouble ; and they may 
feel assured that they may put their case in my hands 
with the full confidence and assurance of the most 
speedy and scientific relief possible, and that all my 
necessary operations will be performed as painlessly 
as possible, as I have several of my own inventions 
that will render them so, and by which I can do these 
various operations with almost no inconvenience to 
all persons who entrust their cases to my care. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SELF-DIAGNOSIS; OR, HOW A PATIENT CAN TELL 
HIS SYMPTOMS. 

As there are many of my patients and readers of 
this book who will ask the question, How can I tell 
what disease I am suffering from ? and how shall I 
write or give the doctor an intelligent account of my 
sufferings that he may make a proper diagnosis and 
treat my case properly ? I will try and show them 
how, in as simple a form as possible, by arranging the 
many symptoms in a tabular form, that can be almost 
answered by a simple Yes or No. Now, there is a 
great variety in the symptoms, and they are very 
numerous both in number, in nature, and in degree, 
and I shall therefore divide them into those affecting 
the generative organs, first ; those affecting and in- 
fluencing the muscular, circulative, nutritive, and 
respiratory systems, second ; and third, and last, 
those affecting the mental and nervous system. 

TABLE I. 
Those symptoms affecting the Generative Organs, 
and are local : 

Nocturnal emissions, with or without erection or consciousness. 
Pollutions accompanying or following defecation or stool. 
(140) 



Self -Diagnosis. 141 

Pollutions accompanying or following irritation on passing 
water. 

Diurnal emissions. 

Spermatic urine, or water containing animalcules. 

Spasmodic or dull pains occasionally in the organs. 

Premature emissions during or before coition or connection. 

Contractions of the prepuce or foreskin. 

Varicocele, or varicose veins in the testicles, generally the left. 

Emissions, with erection upon slight excitement. 

Emissions without erection on having lascivious thoughts. 

Pimples on shoulder and forehead. 

Priapism, or erection without any exciting cause. 

Decrease of sexual desire or enjoyment. 

Sanguineous emissions. 

Diminution of the size of penis and testicles. 

Want and imperfection of erectile power. 

In answering all the above questions, you take 
them in their regular order, and answer them dis- 
tinctly and positively. We have, then, the various 
general symptoms that may affect the different parts 
of the body, and that are all due to some over-indul- 
gence of the sexual act, either by excessive venery or 
self-abuse ; and as many of these symptoms will be 
found to occur in, and to denote other forms of dis- 
ease, still, if they are produced by the practice of 
self-abuse, they will be aggravated in degree, and 
will not yield to the ordinary treatment advised in 
such cases. But we must get at the root of the 
original disease. As an instance : In an otherwise 
healthy person, an attack of indigestion, originating 



142 Self -Diagnosis. 

in inattention to diet, will yield to gentle purgatives, 
tonics, and other well-known means ; but if the symp- 
toms of indigestion exist in consequence of the im- 
pairment of the nutritive functions by seminal losses, 
the ordinary remedies for such symptoms fail to pro- 
duce their usual effect. Until the primary cause be 
removed, the trouble will be increased. We also find 
the same cause operating in disorders of the respira- 
tory tract and the circulatory system, that when due 
to spermatorrhoea will not yield to the ordinary rem- 
edies ; and it is a well-established fact that all the 
various functions of the human economy may be 
more or less deranged by this pernicious habit when 
long continued ; hence we have the following symp- 
toms : 

TABLE II. 

Those symptoms affecting and influencing the Muscu- 
lar, Circulatory, Nutritive, and Respiratory Systems : 

Excessive appetite. 
Pain and heat in the stomach. 

Unpleasant sensations before taking food, with disgust and 
heaviness afterward. 
Weight in the stomach. 
No desire for plain food. 
Accelerated pulse. 
Face flushed. 

Regurgitations of food, with acid eructations. 
Acrid heat in upper part of throat. 



Self-Diagnosis, 143 

Secretions of liver and pancreas not normal, hence they will 
not assist the proper assimilation of the food. 
Evolution of flatus. 
Colicky pains in the bowels. 
Cough, with difficulty of breathing. 
Stomach and intestines distended with gas. 
Flaccid or soft muscles. 
Mucous secretions excessive. 
Palpitation of the heart. 
Apoplexy. 

Liquid and unnatural stools, with constipation. 
Hollow and sunken eyes. 
Extreme sensibility to cold. 
Alopecia, or loss of hair. 
Inflamed eyes and eyelashes. 
Indolence, or indisposition to work. 
Lassitude and fatigue on slight exertion. 
Rheumatism. 
Shooting or fugitive pains in various parts of the body. 

And so these general symptoms will pass on from 
one to another until they end in irredeemable de- 
bility. From these I now pass to those symptoms 
of the third class, that are so much worse in all their 
various characters and forms : 

TABLE III. 

Those symptoms affecting the Mental and Nervous 
Systems : 
Blushing. 

Want of confidence. 
Avoidance of conversation. 



144 Self -Diagnosis. 

Desire for solitude. 

Restlessness. 

Sighing. 

Want of energy. 

Uncertainty of tone of voice. 

Want of purpose. 

Aversion to society. 

Depression of spirits. 

Cowardice, or fear of solitude. 

Listlessness, and inability to fix the attention. 

Dimness of sight, with lachrymation. 

Impairment of the hearing. 

Vertigo, or dizziness. 

Loss or impairment of memory. 

Inequality of temper. 

Peevishness. 

Unable to fix the attention on any subject. 

Desire for meditation. 

Trembling of the hands or fingers. 

Pain in the back of the head or spine. 

Pain over the eyes. 

Disturbed sleep, and unrefreshed in the morning. 

Lascivious and peculiar dreams. 

All these various symptoms will be found by the 
reader in the chapters on Nervous Debility and Sper- 
matorrhoea ; but I put them in this condensed tabular 
form that, in corresponding with me, they can so 
much more readily analyze their cases and give me a 
much better key to the proper treatment and manage- 
ment of their troubles, that I may guide and instruct 
them back to the paths of health and rectitude. 



NOTES OF CASES. 

As there are many of my readers that may be 
worried about "how to write to the doctor," and 
also to show them some of the many letters I am 
constantly receiving from my patients and their 
friends whom they have told to write to me, I will 
give these letters in full, only omitting their names 
or any allusion by which they may be recognized. 
All those who may write to me for sympathy and 
advice in their worry and distress may rest assured 
of the utmost privacy and secrecy. 

These letters are selected from the hundreds on 
ray file, that they may show the treatment and effects 
of the various diseases that I have spoken about in 
this book, and all the writers are aware and willing 
that I should publish them, that they may be the 
means of bringing " one more unfortunate " back to 
himself. 

CASES. 

" My Dear Doctor : — I have decided to write to 

you, from your well-known reputation and from the 

advice of a friend, in the hope that you may give me 

some relief from all my troubles. I will, therefore, 

10 (i45) 



146 Notes of Cases. 

not trespass on your time. At the age of twenty- 
one I came in possession of a handsome fortune, and, 
with a large circle of friends, I had no troubles or 
worry. My past life had been quiet and regular — not 
addicted to intemperance nor masturbation — and I 
was in as perfect a state of health as man could be. 
At this time I desired to get married, but was pre- 
vented from doing so by my guardian from pecuniary 
reasons ; and, in a fit of dissatisfaction, I formed sev- 
eral attachments of an illicit character, and, being 
led away by my powerful sexual propensities, I in- 
dulged to excess — how much I need not confess; 
but, from my twenty-first to twenty-fifth birthday, it 
was almost my only occupation. At that time I felt 
no diminution of power, but soon afterward my ap- 
petite for those indulgences began to lessen, and by 
degrees my power also. I had neither desire nor 
capability so often as before, and for a long period 
would be indifferent to the matter ; and then I no- 
ticed a constant feeling of lassitude and debility — 
both bodily and mental — which unfitted me for any 
active duty. I became dull, listless, peevish, appe- 
tite failed, and all the symptoms of dyspepsia set in, 
for which I tried various remedies as well as consult- 
ing a physician. Though helped for a time, it was 
only to return to the same condition, while my sex- 
ual powers were still worse, until I found myself al- 
most impotent and sank into a miserable state of 



Notes of Cases. 147 

despair and unhappiness. This has continued until 
the present time (now thirty-four years of age), when 
I come openly and candidly to you asking advice and 
assistance. I have no desire for sexual intercourse, 
and think I am losing my semen daily at stool and 
on passing water, and my organs are wasted and un- 
able to perform the sexual act perhaps once in two 
or three months. Of my bodily sufferings I will not 
say much, but they are very severe, as my system is 
thoroughly debilitated and run down. I shall, there- 
fore, await your answer with impatience, and will 
leave my case in your hands. 

" Truly yours, ." 

[.Copy]. 

When I received the above letter I wrote to him 
an encouraging answer, and advised him to come and 
see me at once. He did so, and, when he presented 
himself at the office, I was somewhat in despair, but 
told him I would do all that I could for him. 

I therefore put him on appropriate general and lo- 
cal treatment, and also my Specific Pills. This treat- 
ment was kept up steadily for six months, when he 
returned home perfectly restored, and with my per- 
mission to get married. 

A. R., a mechanic, put himself under treatment in 
1877. Urine contained oxalate of lime and albumen 



148 Notes of Cases. 

and considerable mucous deposit. Violent headache 
at times, with great distress in stomach. Sometimes 
a difficulty in passing water, and attended with a 
scalding pain. Appetite very irregular, and slight 
pain in the lumbar region. Pain on the top of the 
head, restlessness at night, and frequent palpitation 
of the heart, and he looked pale and careworn. 
These symptoms continued for about one month, 
when they were very much abated ; and, with the 
tonic pills and continued treatment, he was com- 
pletely restored. 

" Dr. Smith : — Desiring to place myself under 
your care, I did so, and with the most gratifying re- 
sults. For the benefit of fellow-sufferers, I will give 
you a brief sketch of my case, which you have my 
full permission to publish. I was educated at a large 
boarding-school, where but little or no control was 
exercised over the morals of the boys, and I soon be- 
came a victim of the imprudent habits of youth. 
For some time I felt no bad effects, but ultimately, 
as I approached manhood, all the dreadful conse- 
quences of my self-abuse befell me. I dreaded soci- 
ety. My voice was harsh, my eyes weak and watery, 
my head heavy, memory and the sense of smell much 
impaired, appetite quite gone, and my strength of 
body and mind so destroyed that I was almost an 
imbecile. To add to this misery, the extreme ema- 



Notes of Cases. 149 

ciation into which I had fallen led to the suspicion 
that I was consumptive, and medical aid was sought 
by my friends. I was subjected to a series of ques- 
tions, which worried and annoyed me, as of course I 
dared not confess the real cause of my destruction. 
I was thus falling into perdition, when I became ac- 
quainted with the efficacy of your medicines and new 
method of treating my complaint ; and, thanks to 
your skill and judgment, I am again restored to 
health, my mind happy, and all my vigor returned — 
so much so, that I am now a happy and married man, 
and all owing to your skill and treatment. 

" Yours, etc., ." 

" Dear Doctor : — A friend of mine, who consulted 

you some months ago, Mr. , has strongly advised 

me to apply to you. I will state my case candidly, 
in hope you may do me some good. I enclose your 
fee, $5, and will give you my condition as candidly as 
possible. 

- " I am twenty-eight years of age ; I commenced the 
practice of masturbation at school, when only eleven 
years old, and continued it up to about one year 
ago. In justice to myself, I must say, I was not 
aware of the enormity of the vice, nor did I ever 
consider its destructive effects. A year ago, I de- 
sired to get married, but when considering this step, 
I discovered that I was not fit for the married state ; 



ISO Notes of Cases. 

in fact, I was impotent. I now consulted a good, kind- 
hearted man, our family physician. He strongly ad- 
vised me to put away all thoughts of marriage, and 
put me under treatment ; and had he lived, I feel 
confident he would have cured me ; unfortunately he 
died, and I then consulted various practitioners, 
sometimes obtaining transient benefit, but no lasting 
result. I have taken phosphorus, iron, strychnine, 
and belladonna, and various other drugs, all with 
partial effect ; but I now know that I am losing se- 
men involuntarily. I have taken proper means to 
ascertain this fact, and knowing such to be the case, 
I come to you, saying I have daily and nightly emis- 
sions, without sensations, and am impotent. Can 
you cure me ? I am in your hands. 

" Faithfully, B. E. D." 

I wrote to this gentleman, telling him a personal 
interview was advisable, and when he came I dis- 
covered that the valves, which should close the sem- 
inal ducts, were paralyzed and open. He did not 
need much medicine, but required the most energetic 
treatment to the mouth of these seminal ducts, and 
with proper treatment the result was immediate and 
marked, and I was eventually able to tell him that he 
might marry as soon as he pleased, giving him some 
advice about it, and so he wrote me as follows : 

" I am now three months married ; have carefully 



Notes of Cases. 151 

carried out your instructions, and I do not suffer any 
inconvenience. I have taken the pills with great ad- 
vantage to my general health ; yet I am satisfied all 
the medicine in the world, judging from my past ex- 
perience, would never have effected a radical cure 
without the applications you used. 

"That I am no longer impotent, you may judge 
when I tell you, on medical authority, that my wife 
is now carrying. If you approve of it I will continue 
the tonic pills, and send you P. O. order for a supply 
of them. Yours in trust, B. E. D." 

A. B., a planter, aged twenty-nine, whilst at school, 
had been led into the habit of self-pollution, which 
he had continued for some years. Having become 
aware of the sin and danger of the act, he discon- 
tinued it ; but on attempting to gratify his passions 
by the natural means, he found to his dismay that he 
was totally unable to accomplish the sexual act. The 
penis was incapable of firm and vigorous erection, 
and a discharge took place before an entrance could 
be effected into the female organ. His general health 
seemed good and his frame robust ; this I attributed 
to his pursuits, which obliged him to be many hours 
daily in the open air. I would not undertake the 
case until he had given me a solemn promise never 
again to indulge in the vile practice of onansim. He 
was under treatment for ten weeks, during which he 



152 Notes of Cases. 

had the pleasure of observing a rapid improvement, 
and he was discharged cured. Shortly afterward he 
wrote me the following letter : 

" New Orleans. 
" My Dear Sir:— I am happy to inform you, that 
your treatment has continued successful, although 
when I applied to you I scarcely expected any great 
benefit ; for, as I wrote you at the time, I had been 
suffering some years with debility and moroseness 
which my friends believed constitutional, but which 
I knew in my own mind arose from self-pollution. 
I heard of you from a gentleman who had been un- 
der your care, and was induced by him to consult 
you. I am grateful to say that I now feel fully re- 
stored to health and strength, never better in my 
life. Yours sincerely, A. B." 

Mr. H., of Carroll County, Maryland, aged fifty- 
seven, called June, 1879, to ^> e treated for impotency. 
As he had just married his second wife and manifested 
great anxiety concerning his weakened powers, I ad- 
vised him to try the benefits of the Faradic current 
through the genito-sacral plexus. His occupation 
being such as to require almost constant travel, he 
was unable to follow my orders, so I supplied him 
with my Nerve Tonic Pills and full directions, with 
the result of a most marked improvement in his pro- 
creative powers, so that after a few weeks' continual 



Notes of Cases. 153 

use of the remedy he reported himself " well able to 
enjoy the sexual congress " 

This extract is from a gentleman living in the South, 
who had indulged himself unrestrained until he had 
become completely exhausted and powerless. While 
in this condition he was strongly advised by his friends 
to marry and was himself extremely anxious to enter 
the marriage state with a young lady to whom he 
was ardently attached, but his condition compelled 
him to decline. He wrote to me as follows: 

" . . . . Sexual union is scarcely possible at all. At 
times I have imperfect indications of power, but they 
never come when I will them and they disappear in 
spite of all my efforts to perpetuate them. Oh ! how 
mortified I have been at my vain attempts with fe- 
males lately, and how wretched I have felt at the 
thought that it must always be so ! Doctor, I can 
not live in this way. I don't care to do so — and then 
in regard to the proposed marriage, what shall I do, 
what shall I say, how can I possibly excuse myself? 
This is misery indeed, and, if possible, make me a 
man again " 

I at once put him upon the proper treatment, and 
in the course of six weeks we saw such a decided 
improvement that he could complete his arrange- 



154 Notes of Cases. 

ments for being married, which occurred three months 
after, and shortly after he wrote me the following 
letter : 

" My DEAR DOCTOR : — All my fears are dissipated, 
and I can look forward to the future without fear and 
feel myself as capable in every way as I could desire. 
No failures have occurred, nor have I any reason to 
dread them in the future. In fact, I need a little re- 
straint now, as your medicine has a truly magical ef- 
fect, and I could not believe it did I not see its effects 
on my own person. But for you I should have been 
a miserable wretch not fit to live, and now am a happy, 
healthy husband. 

"With best regards, etc., ." 

G. J. H., a watchmaker, aged twenty-seven, living 
in this city, came to me suffering with a constant loss 
of the generative fluid, occurring almost nightly and 
sometimes in the day, and attended with utter impo- 
tence. He felt, he said, as if his life-blood was draining 
away from him, each discharge being attended with 
the most terrible palpitations of the heart and deadly 
fainting fits ; he was also troubled with a nasty, hol- 
low cough. In this case the strengthening, astringent, 
and tonic properties of my medicines were well mark- 
ed. Not only were the emissions checked and the 
due and wholesome vigor of the frame restored, but 



Notes of Cases. 155 

the cough and other physical symptoms were also ar- 
rested. When I saw him last, he told me with many 
expressions of gratitude he was enjoying better health 
than he had done for years before. 

A gentleman called at my office about two years 
ago, complaining that having been married seven years 
he did not have any children. His age was thirty- 
three and that of his wife twenty-six, and she was 
quite healthy. I found that, although he had led a free 
life, his virile powers were undiminished, and that he 
was in the habit of having connection several times a 
week. On examining his urine by means of the mi- 
croscope, I detected the spermatozoa, which proved a 
waste of semen, and they were not in a healthy con- 
dition. He admitted, though not without reluctance, 
that in his youth he had practiced onanism. I at 
once advised and treated him accordingly, particularly 
by my new method, and was successful beyond my 
own hopes, as he wrote me his wife was enciente* 

" Dr. Smith : — Knowing your high professional 
standing and that I can consult you freely, I write 
respecting my present unfortunate condition. I am 
one who through ignorance — fatal ignorance — has act- 
ed against the laws of man and nature and injured 
myself, I fear irrevocably, by indulging in the odious 
practice of self-pollution. Would to Heaven that 



156 Notes of Cases. 

some mentor had warned me in time of the conse- 
quences of my sin ! 

" I am now twenty-five and partner in a large firm. 
I was only sixteen or seventeen when I first com- 
menced this habit of self-pollution and have continued 
it to a very recent period every week. I now feel a 
heavy, dragging pain in the left testicle, which hangs 
rather lower than the other. The penis seems small 
and shriveled, and I frequently have emissions at 
night. My water is quite clear and apparently 
healthy. I therefore do not think there is any loss 
of semen in that manner; but there is sometimes a 
slimy discharge at stool, especially when I am bound 
in my bowels, which is frequently the case. I find 
myself very weak, and often have pains in my back. 
I am very anxious to marry, but know that my gen- 
erative organs are too feeble for coition, and had I 
married in my present state, should have been mis- 
erable for life. I also fear that my mental faculties are 
greatly impaired, as my memory is very bad and my 
nerves unsteady. I frequently suffer from headache ; 
I feel drowsy and low-spirited, and my voice is husky 
and not so strong nor so clear as formerly. 

" I think I have now given you all my symptoms, and 
shall send you a bottle of my urine for examination, 
though there does not seem anything wrong about it 
to me ; it is quite clear and natural, though when I 
pass it, the penis sometimes feels hot and inflamed at 



Notes of Cases, 157 

the end. I enclose your fee and hope you will give 
me encouragement and promise success. 

" Yours truly, ." 

Six weeks after I heard from him again, of which 
letter I give a short extract : 

" All the urgent symptoms are much abated. Your 
letter was a great encouragement. Shall keep on, as 
I feel more energy and my spirits are first-rate ; ap- 
petite decidedly improved. During the last three 
weeks had only one nocturnal emission, and that was 
very slight, and no discharge when at stool." 

Again, four weeks more have passed, and he writes 
me and I give my readers the important part : 

" I consider myself thoroughly cured, and do not 
think I shall need any more medicine, unless you 
think better to continue it for a while longer; just 
as you say. I am to be married in about two months, 
and shall be glad to see you out this way." 

S. J. W., time-keeper in a large manufactory in this 
city, applied for consultation, complaining of a pain 
in the left side, exceedingly poor appetite, and gen- 
eral debility. An examination revealed great nervous 
depression, functional disease of the heart, and some 
disorganization of the kidneys, rendering him liable 
to sudden death at any time. Having told him his 



158 Notes of Cases. 

danger, and the necessity for a change of occupation, 
and relaxation from business for a few weeks, I com- 
menced treatment, which was entirely successful in 
its results. The character of the urine was changed 
in a few days, and the albuminous secretion stopped. 
An improvement in his general health began forth- 
with, and he returned to his duties in four weeks, a 
well man. In this case we have the complaint of so 
many men who in their youth have been addicted to 
masturbation, and in consequence his sexual organs 
and sensibilities were so irritable that sexual union 
was utterly impossible. He had a plentiful secretion 
of seminal fluid, but the slightest attempt at connec- 
tion, or even thinking about it at times, brought on 
immediate emissions, so that he was in reality power- 
less, and he had always been so. He had taken, I 
believe, every cordial and tonic that was advertised, 
but all to no purpose, and scarcely a hope of relief 
seemed left, and in this condition he came to see me. 
I treated him first by my new method very thoroughly, 
by direct application to the mouths of the seminal 
ducts, with the effect of at once stopping the emis- 
sions ; but still the attempts at connection brought 
them on too soon, so that the act could not be con- 
summated. To relieve this, I put him on my nerve 
tonic pills to nutrify and tone the parts, and improve 
the seminal fluid, and with the most perfect success. 
This trouble of too quick emissions is very common, 



Notes of Cases. 159 

and is both annoying and hurtful, for it will surely 
bring on seminal emissions, but in all cases I have 
been eminently successful. 

A gentleman, aged forty, unfortunately the victim 
of misplaced confidence, was attacked with syphilis. 
Not knowing the terrible consequences of neglect, he 
did nothing but bathe the parts with a lotion for 
about four weeks, when the chancre began to increase 
in size, and to cause him some uneasiness ; he also 
began to notice some irritation of the throat, and 
sore places in his mouth, with itching in the palms of 
the hands. At this stage he applied to me for treat- 
ment, and I at once pronounced it a case of the second- 
ary form. The virus of the disease had been absorbed 
into the circulation, and affected the whole system. 
This condition is much to be dreaded, as it can not be 
cured without several weeks' treatment. There was 
one thing in his favor : he had not been drugged with 
mercury, the common remedy of the hospitals, and 
of many private practitioners ; so that I had not two 
diseases to contend with, the venereal and mercurial. 
I removed all the main symptoms by judicious treat- 
ment, in two months, but continued the treatment 
until he was entirely cured. 

In another case, a gentleman had just got married, 
and about a fortnight after he was surprised and 



160 Notes of Cases. 

shocked to find himself suffering from what he de- 
scribed as true gonorrhoea. Several years before he 
had a severe form of gonorrhoea, which after three 
months he succeeded in getting cured, and he had 
not the slightest appearance of the disease when get- 
ting married. His wife was an apparently healthy 
young woman, and he had not any reason to suspect 
her fidelity. On the contrary, he knew her to be 
virtuous, yet how was the discharge to be accounted 
for? He evidently was suffering much mental anxiety 
on the subject when he sought my advice, and this 
was after making use of the same treatment as dur- 
ing his former attacks, but with no benefit, hence he 
wrote to me, and I advised him to call. He had 
taken large quantities of copaiba, cubebs, and other 
drugs. I made a careful examination, particularly 
of the urine, both chemically and with the microscope, 
and then discovered that he was not suffering from 
true gonorrhoea, but from a mild form of inflamma- 
tion contracted from his wife, who was, at the time 
of marriage, suffering from a not uncommon disease, 
termed leucorrhcea, or whites. The purest and most 
virtuous females are subject to this ; nay, even vir- 
gins have it frequently. Having discovered the true 
nature of his disease, I had no difficulty nor delay 
in curing it, and at the same time relieving his mind 
from all shadow of doubt about his wife, who, at my 
suggestion, was successfully treated for her complaint. 



Notes of Cases. 161 

I was consulted a short time ago by a gentleman 
aged thirty-five, in a state of great mental anxiety. 
He had in youth led a " fast life," and had repeatedly 
contracted both gonorrhoea and chancre — an infec- 
tion of a much more serious nature. For this latter 
disease he had been treated with mercury in great 
abundance, and had been pronounced cured. Be- 
lieving this to be the case, he had married and be- 
came the father of two children ; both of whom had 
lived only a very short time. Latterly he had felt 
his health materially declining, and was suffering 
somewhat from eruptions on his head, back, and 
chest, while an ulcer appeared to be forming at the 
back of the throat. His wife, too, was evidently 
affected in a very similar manner, with sore throat, 
copper-colored eruptions, baldness, and very severe 
nocturnal pains. 

The wife, who had not been saturated with mer- 
cury, rapidly recovered ; but her husband suffered as 
much from the improper remedies used (by the for- 
mer medical attendant) as from the disease itself. 
By a thorough course of treatment, I ultimately suc- 
ceeded in curing him of the disease and eradicating 
the mineral poison. 

A few months ago I was consulted by a young 
man, who was employed in a large manufacturing 
establishment, for a trouble that seemed to be a very 
ji 



1 62 Notes of Cases. 

obstinate gleet. It was at once evident that he had 
been a votary of self-abuse — indeed, he said he could 
hardly escape, as all his companions were more or 
less addicted to the habit. Some two or three years 
back he had read many of the books published on 
this subject, and became thoroughly alarmed and dis- 
gusted with the propensity. He at length had re- 
course to illicit connection, and thus contracted gon- 
orrhoea, when, through unskillful treatment, gleet 
was the sequelae. In this dilemma he consulted me. 

Now, about this time his symptoms were compli- 
cated and many. He was extremely weak, losing 
flesh, headache, cold perspirations, eyesight much 
affected (especially the left eye), frequent dizziness 
(especially when stooping), emissions, pains in the 
shoulders and spinal column, urine thick, and passed 
frequently in small quantities. 

The result of my treatment was a complete recov- 
ery of this patient ; and, being restored to health, he 
sought out all those young men whom he knew to 
be guilty of onanism, warned them of their danger, 
and induced them to apply to me for the necessary 
treatment. They all had the good sense to follow 
my instructions and treatment and were cured. 

Thus, through the candor, conscientiousness, and 
moral courage of one young man, a number of others 
were rescued from vice, disease, and misery, and 
brought back to health and happiness. 



Notes of Cases. 163 

Some time ago a patient came to me suffering 
from a recently-contracted gonorrhoea and compli- 
cated by a spermatorrhoea in its active form. By the 
advice of a friend he had procured an astringent in- 
jection, which, however, he discarded just in time to 
escape an attack of orchitis, or swelled testicle, in 
consequence of its injudicious application. The local 
swelling and inflammation were intense ; the discharge 
not very painful, but dark-colored and occasionally 
streaked with blood. The nocturnal emissions were 
frequent and profuse, and were attended with great 
pain of some hours' duration. 

My first object was, of course, to remove the gon- 
orrhoea, which, aggravated as it had been by im- 
proper treatment, soon yielded to my specific medi- 
cine, accompanied by certain subsidiary remedies, 
and within ten days was entirely arrested. The noc- 
turnal emissions, however, continued as abundant as 
ever; though no longer attended with such severe 
pain. These I also succeeded in preventing by my 
new method treatment, and finally I completed the 
cure, and, by regenerative treatment, restored his 
constitution. 

My readers will judge that this case required very 
skillful and intelligent treatment, and would not have 
admitted the usual plan of dosing with all the vile 
medicines commonly employed, and, if so, would 
have left behind a gleet or stricture. 



164 Notes of Cases. 

This case came to me from Bridgeport, Conn., on 
account of a severe inflammatory gonorrhoea that he 
had contracted from illicit intercourse, and had tried 
the various remedies with no avail. When he pre- 
sented himself, I made an examination and found him 
also suffering from a phimosis or elongation of the 
foreskin, and so much so, that he had never seen the 
glans of his penis, as he could not pull the foreskin 
back ; in consequence of this, his disease had extended 
to the corona of the glans. Before putting him on 
the proper treatment, I was compelled to perform a 
slight operation on the foreskin, which relieved that 
trouble at once, and enabled him, for the first time in 
his life, to see the glans or head. I then treated 
him for his clap, and am happy to say that he has 
entirely recovered and finds that he can enjoy the 
sexual act much more than formerly. 

As an opposite condition to the case last noted, 
Mr. B. D. B., a carpenter of Brooklyn, came to me 
suffering from a large number of superficial ulcers on 
the glans, foreskin, and dorsum or back of the penis. 
These were chancroids, and he had been to several 
physicians who had treated him with the various 
remedies in vogue, as iodoform, etc., but he continued 
to get worse, and having retracted the foreskin, he 
was unable to return it — so from the swelling of the 
mucous membrane and the parts underneath, he had 



Notes of Cases. 165 

caused partial strangulation and a paraphimosis. 
Again I performed a trivial operation to loosen the 
strangulation, and with appropriate local and general 
treatment for his ulcers, I soon saw an improvement 
that went on to a perfect cure. 

I will close my illustrations of cases with one show- 
ing the effects of excessive intercourse, and shall leave 
the subject in the hands of my readers, with the as- 
surance that all their cases and letters shall have the 
utmost privacy, and that with all their consultations 
with me they may be assured of the most perfect 
sympathy and success in treatment. 

Mr. A., a young man who had never been guilty of 
self-abuse, but who had married before reaching the 
age of twenty, and though he had not indulged in any 
promiscuous intercourse, still he had indulged with 
his wife until his health was very seriously affected. 
He complained of dizziness, determination of blood 
to the head, dimness of sight, and a failing memory, 
together with a rapid decline of strength. Conjugal 
intercourse, which was for some time very imperfect, 
had become almost impossible. 

On microscopic examination, I found he was suffer- 
ing from a form of passive spermatorrhoea, and order- 
ed him to abstain from any further attempts, with a 
powerful course of remedies, together with the appli- 



1 66 Notes of Cases, 

cation of my "new method" and the internal admin- 
istration of my "Nerve Tonic Pills" as the case re- 
quired. As he was blessed with a strong and vigorous 
constitution and faithfully carried out all my instruc- 
tions, I am happy to say that in two months his virile 
powers were completely restored, and for the future 
I only cautioned him to use moderation and not 
excess. 

As soon as he was satisfied that he was on the cor- 
rect road to health, he consulted me about his wife, 
who had also suffered from their mutual excesses. 
Her case presented many difficulties, but by careful 
and personal treatment I was able to restore her, and 
carefully admonished them both to guard against this 
folly and serious complication in the future. 



SPECIAL NOTICE TO PATIENTS AND 
READERS. 

It is now many years since I commenced the prac- 
tice of treating these special diseases of the GENER- 
ATIVE and Nervous Systems, and I can therefore 
offer my patients unusual advantages, being supplied 
very fully with all that is necessary to treat the cases 
successfully, both SURGICAL and MEDICAL, as de- 
scribed in this book. 

Dr. E. D. Smith, surgeon, can therefore be person- 
ally consulted — as I do not put any of my cases in the 
hands of assistants — at his office daily, No. 100 East 
Twenty-ninth Street, during the hours of eight in 
the morning until one, and five until eight in the 
evening. 

It is always desirable in all cases that I should 
have, at least, one personal interview with my pa- 
tients, even with those living at a distance, that I may 
make at once a positive diagnosis, as this will result 
in manifold advantages to all that are afflicted, and 
is far superior to a mere correspondence, as a single 
visit in most cases will enable me to make an instan- 
taneous and accurate judgment, and thus expedite the 

(167) 



1 68 Special Notice to Patients and Readers. 

recovery \ as a more correct diagnosis of the disorders, 
and a better appreciation of the patient's constitu- 
tion, can be arrived at, whilst an exact microscopic 
examination of the urine, when necessary, will ren- 
der any mistake impossible. 

Especially is this the case in those suffering from 
spermatorrhoea. Also, there are so many important 
questions affecting the patient that could not be put 
in this book, and that would be suggested by seeing 
the patient myself, and that would be forgotten or 
overlooked in a correspondence. And in the case 
of those suffering from any urethral discharge, be it 
venereal or not, whether produced by an impure con- 
nection or from any cause, it is eminently better for 
me to see and examine the discharge for a correct 
diagnosis, as well as the facility for urinary examina- 
tion ; and these many advantages will well repay one 
in the rapidity and permanent cure of whatever dis- 
ease he may be suffering from. 

But to those living at a distance from the city, I 
would advise them to write carefully according to 
my instruction of symptoms in another part of this 
book, and that it is to their own interest that they 
should be as confidential and as minute in giving me 
very full details of all their symptoms, age, habits 
of living, etc., etc., that I can send them the proper 
and necessary remedies, to any address, or directed to 
be left till called for, at any railway station or express 



Special Notice to Patients and Readers. 169 

office, in a portable compass, carefully packed and 
free from any observation, and that they may be 
taken without confinement or any restraint whatever — 
only to follow directions. 

Hence, to those desiring to consult me, either per- 
sonally or by letter, they can rely on the following 
rules of my office : 

First. That all cases applying to me will be strictly 
confidential and secure. 

Second. I can always be seen at the hours above 
named at my office, and at any other time only by 
special appointment by letter. 

Third. That I will never undertake a case unless 
I can guarantee a cure, or very materially alleviate 
the existing trouble or deformity. 

Fourth. That all my preparations are prepared by 
myself in my laboratory, and that they are perfectly 
pure and reliable. 

Fifth. That I will not advise nor undertake any 
surgical operation unless I consider it absolutely 
necessary for the health and happiness of the indi- 
vidual. 

Lastly. I can always and at all times be seen per- 
sonally by my patients, and they may be assured of 
perfect sympathy and skillful advice. 

All communications should be accompanied by my 
usual fee in such cases— five dollars — which may be 



170 Special Notice to Patients and Readers* 

sent by cash, check, or post-office order. In all cases, 
this rule is positive, and all letters will be considered 
inviolable, and will be either returned to the writers, 
destroyed at the termination of each case, or kept 
secret for future reference. I have many patients 
whose cases I have conducted to a speedy and suc- 
cessful termination without a single interview, and 
only by means of letters fully describing all their 
symptoms ; as for a long series of years most of my 
practice was conducted by correspondence only, dis- 
tance being no hindrance or additional expense to 
invalids residing in the most distant and remote 
parts of the country. Patients may also write in 
any language that may suit them, English, French, 
Spanish, etc. ; and if they decide to use an assumed 
name or initials, it does not make any difference to 
me. I only request them to always keep the same 
name or initials throughout all the correspondence, 
and each letter should also contain the address to 
which the writer wishes his letters sent or packages 
directed in plain and distinct writing. 

To those living at a distance, I would advise them 
that they can send me a sample of their urine in a 
small two-ounce vial (flafe, securely corked and sealed), 
and packed carefully in cotton or sawdust in a small 
box, which may be obtained from any druggist ; and 
always send me the first urine that is passed in the 



Special Notice to Patients and Readers. 171 

morning on rising. The parcel should be addressed 
plainly {charges paid) to Dr. Edwin D. SMITH, No. 
100 East Twenty-ninth Street, corner Fourth Ave- 
nue, New York City. 

" Dr. Edwin D. Smith, of this city, is one of the 
most successful and reliable practitioners in all that 
branch of his profession pertaining to disorders of 
the nervous system and the genito-urinary organs. 
Having held several State-professorships and enjoyed 
a very large hospital experience, combined with his 
very extensive and enlarging private practice, also 
the author of several works and inventor of many 
surgical instruments, he is fully qualified to take the 
most difficult cases, in which he has enjoyed the 
most unvarying success and the thanks and regards 
of scores of the best people in the city." 

The above extract was taken from one of our large 
city papers, and I insert it here for the benefit of my 
readers. 

I would again impress upon my readers and those 
contemplating seeking my advice, the absolute neces- 
sity of having such matters attended to at once, as I 
am frequently enabled to cut short these diseases at 
the very start, whereby the patient is relieved of so 
much suffering and worry of mind and body. Hence 
the necessity that, if possible, they should without 



172 Special Notice to Patients and Readers. 

delay seek a personal interview at my office, thereby 
saving immense time and expense in the treatment of 
their complaints. 

Dr. Edwin D. Smith, Surgeon, 

No. 100 East Twenty-ninth Street, 
Office Hours : New York City. 

8 A.M. to 1 P.M., and 5 to 8 P.M. 



Woman : Her Diseases and Treatment, 



WITH THEIR 



CAUSES and. CURE, 



CLEARLY EXPLAINED. 



This work, designed for the benefit of the female sex, has 
been published, and it will be found interesting and instructive. 
I have realized the necessity of such a work since I introduced 
the present volume of "The New Method," a work de- 
signed for men only, and as I have received many letters, asking 
me if I had such a work for the female sex, I determined to issue 
the present edition, that I might give the female sex a true 
knowledge of their organs, and the various diseases pertaining 
thereto, and to point out to them a guide to health, that their 
lives may not be rendered miserable and unhappy. 200 pages, 
illustrated, and handsomely bound. Price One Dollar. Address, 

Dr. Edwin D. Smith, 

100 East 29th St., New York, 
corner fourth avenue. 



